Box Office Breakdown for Weekend of 9/1/24

Movies

What’s up, Geeks + Gamers? It’s ODIN!

Newcomers Reagan, AfrAId, 1992 Fail to Impress

While some in the mainstream media run with the notion of seemingly impressive summer box office totals being up quite a bit from last year’s abysmal box office totals, they cannot change the fact that this Labor Day weekend is seeing some of the worst box office numbers of the entire summer. Even with several new releases spanning various target demographics, it is clear that this is one of the worst weekends we have seen at the box office this summer. 

Starting with Reagan, which had a reported budget of about $25 million, it was stuck in the single digits, making only about $7,400,720 in the first weekend of its release. As of right now, the movie is looking at a loss of about -$33,429,604, considering its budget and estimated marketing costs. Though it is a bit too early to tell just how much money this film is likely to lose, these numbers help demonstrate that the older moviegoing demographic has still not returned to the cinemas in any meaningful way. Even though the movie looks to wax nostalgic for those who grew up in the 80s or were fans of Ronald Reagan as president, it is clear that that alone is not enough to find any success at the box office in today’s market. There is still a chance that the movie could find a second life when it drops on VOD platforms or when the rights to stream it get sold, but that is still a long way off.

Moving now to the AI-inspired horror film AfrAId, which only had a budget of about $12 million, we see another demonstration of how Hollywood has clearly still not recovered when it comes to box office performance. I am confident the studio thought a low-budget horror/thriller featuring AI would be enough by itself to entice the usually powerful horror fan audience to show up and help make them a quick buck, but it turns out that it takes a lot more than that these days to drive any moviegoers back to the theater. Based on its budget and costs, the film is currently only seeing a -$15,045,000 loss, but with how little conversation seems to be surrounding the film and these incredibly low opening numbers, there is only a slight chance for it to make its money back theatrically. Ultimately, the fate of this movie is likely to be decided when it finally gets released to VOD and streaming, where there is always a chance of success. 

Lastly, we move to what I believe is the last movie featuring Ray Liotta posthumously, 1992. Not only does this film have a title that has made searching for budgets time-consuming and just downright annoying, but it also got a weirdly limited release from Lionsgate at less than 1000 screens, which ultimately led to the film’s opening domestic numbers reaching $1,365,000… yikes. Not only does 1992 not yet have a reported budget as of the writing of this article, but the chances of this film even being mentioned in future articles on this site are very much in doubt because of just how little it is making when compared to all of the other movies in release… including some that have been out for over six weeks. I am projecting that the budget for this movie is probably between $20-$60 million, which means if it cost around $40 million to make, it will be looking at about -$59,249,250 in losses at this point. Whereas the other films I have mentioned have a chance of making money at some point (even if it’s only a small chance), I cannot say the same thing for 1992, which seems to be bound for the Dollar Tree or Dollar General movie selection bin. 

According to the-numbers.com, the top 5 this weekend domestically were:

1. Deadpool & Wolverine (17% drop in 6th weekend)
2. Alien: Romulus (43% drop in 3rd weekend)
3. It Ends With Us (36% drop in 4th weekend)
4. Reagan ($7.4 million as a new release)
5. Twisters (+17% in 7th weekend)

Deadpool & Wolverine, Alien: Romulus, and It Ends With Us Continue to Dominate

Considering how poorly all of the new releases this weekend did, it should not shock anyone that Deadpool & Wolverine, Alien: Romulus, and It Ends With Us once again finished in the top three spots. With the sequel to the classic film Beetlejuice set to release next weekend, this is probably going to be the last weekend where these movies hit these exact spots. Chances are that Deadpool & Wolverine will continue to perform in the #2 spot for a bit, and the others will battle it out for third, most likely until Speak No Evil comes out on September 13th… but hey, anything could happen. As an update, Deadpool & Wolverine has reached $1,257,925,117 and is on pace to get at least $1.3 billion before the run ends; Alien: Romulus has made $283,464,631 globally, but because over $75 million of that has come from China, it has still not made its money back, though it is set to do so very soon, currently having lost about -$4,296,156; It Ends With Us has made $283,719,000 globally and is nearing almost $100 million in net profits, which is very impressive for a film no one probably had on their bingo card for summer of 2024 box office hits. 

Check out my channel for the latest box office HERE.

If you want further analysis on these or any other films, check out the full charting I do over at my website. Have a wonderful rest of your day, and as always, God bless! 

(If you ever want further insight into my methodology, see my previous articles HERE and HERE, and the RCC method I use to break down movies internationally HERE.)