Box Office: Disaster movie about weather apocalypse not so hot
Geostorm was key to box office dipping 9% from the previous weekend
The new disaster movie Geostorm might have topped the box office, but it set records for all the wrong reasons. The movie was key to box office dipping 9% from the previous weekend to just under $9 million. It has been seven weeks since takings dropped that low. This was the first weekend this year that there wasn't a movie in wide release with a screen average over $5,000. It was also one of the few weekends this year where distributors didn't have enough faith in a single movie to push into more than 400 screens. That happened for three weeks in a row back in mid-August.
#1 Geostorm $1.53m
The disaster film about the weather taking control was pushed onto 324 screens and returned the lowest screen average for a movie at the top of the box office chart this year – $4,751. The movie stars Gerard Butler and our own Abbie Cornish, but she was not enough to save it from a savaging by the critics and moviegoers alike. One critic dubbed it "Geostinker".
#2 Blade Runner 2049
The third weekend in cinemas sees total gross on $10.5m as it shed 121 screens to 356 with a screen average of $3,968.
#3 The Mountain Between Us
Second week of the romance survival movie sees takings down 45% to just under $1m as it shed just six screens to 292 with a screen average of $3,223.
#4 The Snowman
The second of two new releases to crack the top five did so on 291 screens with a screen average of $2,917. The critics didn't like this British crime thriller starring Michael Fassbender either.
#5 Happy Death Day
The second weekend of this Halloween special was down 44% with a screen average of $3,515 from 262 screens. To-date it has earned 2.59m.
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Outside the top five: There were two releases with a screen average over $5,000 – but they were both on fewer than 40 screens. Both movies were from the prolific Indian cinema industry – Mersal did $273,000 from 25 screens with a screen average of $10,943. Meanwhile Gomall Again is film #4 in the successful franchise, which earned $273,000 also, but from 34 screens at an average of $8,044.
