By Josh Rottenberg | Los Angeles Times
DIRECTOR Ron Howard’s Inferno—the third installment in Sony’s franchise based on author Dan Brown’s best-selling series that kicked off with The Da Vinci Code—came into this weekend with predictions that it would easily claim the top spot at the box office.
In the end, however, the film had all the spark of a soggy match, landing in second place after Boo! A Madea Halloween.
With Tom Hanks returning as globe-trotting Prof. Robert Langdon, Inferno pulled in just $15 million in its domestic debut, well short of the $20 million to $30 million many had expected and a steep 68-percent drop, from the $46 million opening weekend haul of the last film in the franchise, 2009’s Angels & Demons. In its second weekend, director and star Tyler Perry’s latest Madea film got a boost from the Halloween weekend, slipping just 41 percent from its opening to pull in $16.7 million, bringing its domestic total to $52 million.
Despite the dismal domestic opening of Inferno, which was hampered by largely stinging reviews, the film has proved more appealing to audiences overseas. With a successful launch in China and Japan over the weekend, the film is already approaching $150 million globally.
“We always knew that was our sweet spot, quite frankly, and the movie was actually built with the intent that internationally it would resonate well,” said Rory Bruer, Sony’s distribution chief. “It was a very good bet and it is paying off.”
Though the picture received a respectable “B+” CinemaScore from audiences, its domestic opening showed a steep drop-off in interest from The Da Vinci Code, which launched the franchise a decade ago with a $77-million debut. Inferno also underperformed Hanks’s last outing, Sully, which opened with $35 million just last month and has earned more than $122 million domestically so far.
“Certainly, we got a few bad breaks,” Bruer said. “Having this historic World Series was really tough on our audience in particular, which was 55 percent male and more than 60 percent over 25. That being said, we made a movie that we’re proud of. And audiences are liking the film, so hopefully, we’ll be hanging around for a while.”
On a brighter note, expanding to 36 theaters in its second weekend, director Barry Jenkins’s critically acclaimed drama Moonlight earned $900,826, boasting an impressive per-theater average of $25,023 that bodes well for a film that is considered to have significant awards potential in the months ahead.
Rounding out the top 5 in the weekend box-office derby were Tom Cruise’s action sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, which earned $9.6 million; Ben Affleck’s The Accountant, which pulled in $8.5 million; and Universal’s horror prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil, with $7.1 million.
In all, it was a lackluster weekend at the box office, with the top 12 films down 32 percent compared to last weekend. But things should bounce back this weekend with Marvel’s Doctor Strange, Fox’s animated Trolls and Mel Gibson’s World War II film Hacksaw Ridge, all opening in wide release.