Dystopias Large (Blade Runner 2049) and Small (The Florida Project) at the Box Office
Sunday, October 8, 2017 at 3:08PM
NATHANIEL R in Blade Runner 2049, The Florida Project, The Mountain Between Us, box office, moviegoing

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (October 6th-8th)
BLADE RUNNER 2049 BATTLE OF THE SEXES
1.🔺 BLADE RUNNER 2049  $31.5 on 4000+ screens new BEST OF | SHORT FILMS  6. AMERICAN MADE $8 on 3000+ screens (cum. $30.4)
2.🔺 THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US $10.1 on 3000+ screens new 7. LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE $6.7 on 3600+ screens (cum. $43.8)
3. IT $9.6  on 3600+ screens (cum. $304.9) REVIEW | 5 TAKEAWAYS  8.🔺 VICTORIA & ABDUL $4.1 on 732 screens (cum. $5.9) BEST ACTRESS
4. 🔺 MY LITTLE PONY  $8.8 on 2500+ new 9. FLATLINERS  $3.8 on 2500+ screens (cum. $12.3) TRAILER
5.  KINGSMAN: GOLDEN CIRCLE  $8.1 on 3400+ screens (cum. $79.9)  REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL 10. 🔺 BATTLE OF THE SEXES $2.4 on 1800+ screens  (cum.$7.6) BEST OF... | TRAILER

🔺 = new or significant expansion

numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo 

 

T'was a quieter weekend than forecasters predicted at the box office with the Blade Runner sequel having more trouble than expected (which wouldn't be trouble but for that $150 million budget -- hey, at least it's all on the screen!) The Mountain Between Us didn't turn into a towering counter-programming option but with a much much lower budget $35, it should be fine in the long run.

The week's most crowded theaters (albeit only 4 of them) belonged to A24's The Florida Project, which Chris reviewed and Jason shared a personal essay about here already. We highly recommend it. The film is off to a very solid platform start of $153,000. For context that's about 2½ times the first weekend of Sean Baker's previous awards worthy critical darling Tangerine , which also happened to be a supremely empathetic, wickedly funny, moving look at a marginalized community. We love Baker for his consistent great skill with first time actors and that singular but versatile niche. Much less popular but far more of a specialty audience only item was the debut of Agnes Varda's delightful new documentary Faces Places which Murtada reviewed.  

What did you see this weekend? Apart from Blade Runner 2049 (which, more soon) I had a theater weekend taking in "The Play That Goes Wrong" on Broadway and a very wacky very naked modern dance performance inspired by the films of Almodovar. No, really! 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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