As predicted, Tyler Perry’s holiday-themed sequel Boo 2! A Madea Halloween terrified the competition over the weekend, and ended up the big winner at the box office with a $21.6 million debut.
The premiere of Boo 2 marked the seventh time one of Perry’s “Madea” films broke the $20 million mark, with all but 2013’s A Madea Christmas crossing that box-office threshold — not too shabby, considering that the films have all been made on budgets in the $5-20 million range.
As with most of Perry’s films, professional critics were less than impressed with Boo 2, which currently has a mere eight-percent approval rating on review aggregator RottenTomatoes. However, ticket-buying audience members had a different opinion of the film — as they often do with Perry’s movies — and gave it a warm “A-” grade.
| # | Title | Weekend | U.S. Total | Worldwide Total |
| 1. | Boo 2! A Madea Halloween | $21.6M | $21.6M | $21.6M |
| 2. | Geostorm | $13.3M | $13.3M | $62.9M |
| 3. | Happy Death Day | $9.3M | $40.6M | $53.5M |
| 4. | Blade Runner 2049 | $7.1M | $74M | $194.1M |
| 5. | Only the Brave | $6M | $6M | $6M |
| 6. | The Foreigner | $5.4M | $22.8M | $111.2M |
| 7. | It | $3.5M | $320.2M | $651.6M |
| 8. | The Snowman | $3.4M | $3.4M | $22.6M |
| 9. | American Made | $3.1M | $45.5M | $121.3M |
| 10. | Kingsman: The Golden Circle | $3M | $94.5M | $344.8M |
The news wasn’t nearly as good for Geostorm, Warner Bros. Pictures’ effects-driven disaster movie that earned $13.3 million, but reportedly cost more than $120 million to make. The film, which stars Gerard Butler and chronicles the events that unfold when a weather-controlling satellite is turned into a weapon, didn’t fare much better with audiences or critics.
Despite a heavy marketing push, Geostorm received a “B-” grade on audience polling site CinemaScore and currently has a 13-percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. At this point, the movie’s only hope of covering its production costs is a big win overseas, which isn’t entirely impossible, given that it’s the sort of movie that typically does well in China and many other major international markets.
The only other new releases to crack the weekend’s top ten movies were firefighting drama Only the Brave in fifth place, and serial killer thriller The Snowman in eighth place. The latter film suffered the one-two punch of poor reviews and an underwhelming debut, while Only the Brave was right in line with the low end of expectations for the film, which earned good reviews — but not good enough to make it a surprise hit.
The rest of the weekend’s top movies were all returning films, with low-budget horror movie Happy Death Day remaining on top of Blade Runner 2049 in third and fourth place, respectively.
The upcoming Halloween weekend adds a few more horror films to the calendar, with sequel Jigsaw bringing the Saw franchise back to the screen, and Amityville: The Awakening doing the same with the Amityville haunted house franchise. While Jigsaw will certainly contend for Halloween crowds, the weekend’s biggest release is Suburbicon, a crime comedy directed, produced, and co-written by George Clooney, along with Osar-winning co-writers Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars Matt Damon, and received positive reviews after its premiere at the 74th Venice International Film Festival earlier this year.
