By Chris Kavan - 09/03/18 at 06:54 PM CT
Labor Day Weekend is one of the more quiet movie holidays - unlike say, Thanksgiving or Christmas, Labor Day is pretty chill. That being said, there was plenty of reason to celebrate with Crazy Rich Asians and Mission: Impossible - Fallout both reaching major milestones while the new films, while a bit low key, were decent for this otherwise quiet holiday. All in all, not a bad weekend as the summer officially winds down and we enter the fall season.
1) CRAZY RICH ASIANS
After three weeks, Crazy Rich Asians shows little sign of slowing down as it easily topped the holiday with a $22.2 million weekend and $28.3 million including the nice day off. That means the film topped the $100 million mark with a new total of $117 million. That is a mere 10% drop week-to-week and the third-best Labor Day Weekend on record (behind just The Sixth Sense at $29 million and Halloween at $30 million). It will most likely pass Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again ($118 million) and The Meg ($123 million) to break into the top 10 for the 2018 summer movie season. If it continues to hold up as well as it has, however, it can easily go much higher. I mean, $150 million seems like a long shot, but I wouldn't put it past it at this point. As long as adult audiences continue to support it, the sky's the limit.
2)
THE MEG
Taking the second spot for the third consecutive weekend as well, Jason Statham's shark film took another $10.5 million for the weekend with $13.44 million with Labor Day taken into account. That gives the monster film a new $123.4 million total. The film is also rapidly approaching the $500 million worldwide mark with $17.7 million overseas with a total of $463 million. It will have little problem topping that mark in the next week or two, with Japan on the way and China continuing to go strong. Yes, Crazy Rich Asians will eventually catch up, and most likely top it, but The Meg is still a late-summer success story and Statham, and everyone else involved, should feel very happy about the results.
3)
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT
Jumping back into the top three, Mission: Impossible - Fallout added $7 million ($9 million for the holiday), dropping a light 13.4% in the process. That gives the franchise flick a $206.3 million total - meaning the $200 million mark has been topped. But the good news doesn't stop there as the film enjoyed a $77.3 million opening in China - the best Hollywood debut for the month on record - and a huge 84% increase over the opening of Rogue Nation in that market. The film has a new $647 million global total - only $12 million behind Rogue Nation now, and it will soon top that film to become the highest-grossing global Mission: Impossible yet. In fact, $750 million is not out of the question and I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot more of Ethan Hunt in the future, providing Tom Cruise doesn't fall apart.
4)
OPERATION FINALE
The true-story drama about a secret task force tracking Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann landed in fourth place with $6 million ($7.7 million for the holiday, $9 million including its early opening). That is the best Labor Day opening since 2015 when Transporter Refueled earned $9 million itself. That is very close to the launch of The Constant Gardener ($10 million) while falling just behind the likes of The Debt ($14 million). The film was almost evenly split between male and female with 65% of said audience coming in over the age of 35. We already know from Crazy Rich Asians that adult audiences tend to give film better legs in the long run, but this $24 million production is going to need a bit of help overseas for it to hit the black.
5)
SEARCHING
Expanding nationwide after a successful limited run, Searching jumped from 22nd to 5th place after adding nearly 1200 theaters (an increase of 1867.7%) for a weekend of $5.7 million with the holiday weekend approaching the $7 million mark. That would give us an $8.14 million total. That is a fine showing for John Cho, and also a film that takes place from the vantage point of various computer/smart phone/ social media screens. The film was also evenly split between male and female with 61% of said audience coming in over the age of 25. The film should have a decent run ahead of it - it may not set the world on fire, but for a film that seems to cater to a rather specific audience, I think it will wind up just fine.
Outside the top five: As predicted, Kin wasn't much of a factor at the box office with just $3.66 million (12th place). Much like Alpha and A.X.L., this is not long for the movie-going world.
The Incredibles 2 added $4.46 million in 11th place, for a new total of $602.3 million, becoming just the ninth film ever to top the $600 million domestic mark. In other milestone news, The Equalizer 2 added $1.815 million (17th place), just enough to cross the $100 million mark with $100.7 million.
In limited release, Pantelion's latest, Ya Veremos, opened to $2.27 million in 14th place out of just 369 for a decent $6,152 per-theater-average and a continuing success for the studio.
Next week, the first of September, brings us horror film The Nun, action film Peppermint and uplifting God Bless the Broken Road.
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