'John Wick 3' Rockets To Strongest Opening Yet With $57M

NY Times: The third “John Wick” movie arrived to stronger-than-expected ticket sales, returning Keanu Reeves to the top of the box-office chart for the first time in 11 years and giving Lionsgate a much-needed shot in the arm.

“John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum,” which finds the title’s super-assassin (Reeves) on the run from other contract killers, collected about $57 million at theaters in the United States and Canada over the weekend, according to Comscore. The R-rated Lionsgate series has grown remarkably more powerful with each installment: “John Wick: Chapter 2” had $30 million in initial ticket sales in 2017, improving on the $15 million that “John Wick” collected over its first three days in 2014.

That kind of audience expansion — extremely rare — is a dream result for Lionsgate, which has been struggling to turn around its movie operation, in part because Netflix has started to crank out the type of low- and mid-budget films in which Lionsgate has long specialized. Why go to theaters to see these diversions when Netflix is pumping them into your living room?

Last year, Lionsgate released 19 movies through various labels and took in a total of $379 million in North America, its worst showing since 2007. Lionsgate’s most recent releases, “Hellboy” and “Long Shot,” were both bombs. Tyler Perry delivered a hit in March with “A Madea Family Funeral,” but it was the last film that Mr. Perry intends to supply to Lionsgate, ending a 14-year run. He has a new alliance with Paramount.

Lionsgate said on Sunday that “John Wick: Chapter 3” collected an additional $35 million in partial release overseas. The film received strong reviews from most critics. David Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a movie consultancy, said the results put the series “on outstanding footing going forward” and said it was now “an elite action thriller franchise.”

“John Wick: Chapter 3,” which stars Halle Berry in a supporting role, cost an estimated $75 million to make and roughly $40 million to market. The last time Reeves had a No. 1 opening was in 2008 with “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

'Kingsman 2' Wins Second Weekend At Box-Office By A Nose

VARIETY: Fox’s “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” has repeated as the official winner of the North American weekend box office by barely prevailing over Tom Cruise’s “American Made” and horror hit “It.”

Final weekend numbers released on Monday evening from comScore showed the second weekend of the “Kingsman” sequel taking in $16.93 million for the Friday-Sunday frame. New Line’s “It” tallied $16.9 million in its fourth weekend, topping “American Made’s” $16.8 million opening weekend gross.

Sunday morning estimates had shown “It” with $17.3 million, compared to $17 million each for “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” and “American Made.” It was one of the closest box office races in memory.

Overall business was moderate, followed three weekends of strong performance spurred by “It.” The final results for Sony’s opening of “Flatliners” did not change from an unimpressive $6.7 million.

Spy comedy “Kingsman: the Golden Circle” has taken in $66.6 million domestically and another $126 million overseas. “It” has topped $290 million in the U.S. with $262 million internationally for a worldwide total of $552.8 million.

“American Made,” starring Cruise as an airline pilot-turned-CIA operative, has grossed $64.7 million outside the United States for a global total of $81.5 million. It’s one of the lowest performances for Cruise in recent years.

Warner Bros.’ launch of “Blade Runner 2049” is expected to dominate the domestic box office this weekend.

The box office from Friday and Saturday made September the first month to break the $700 million mark with $708.9 million — 19.2% higher than last year and 14.7% higher than the previous record month of September in 2015, according to comScore. It was also the first September to surpass a summer month (May through August) in terms of total revenue beating August, 2017’s $668.5 million haul.

'Kingsman: The Golden Circle' Fires Up $3.4 Million In Previews

DEADLINE: 20th Century Fox’s kickass spy sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle shot up a very notable $3.4M last night in previews from 3,100 locations. After It‘s massive $13.5M Thursday night, Golden Circle is officially the second best preview night for the month of September.

The first movie, released over Presidents Day/Valentine’s Day weekend two years ago, made $1.4M on its Thursday night at 2,569 venues. Kingsman: The Secret Service posted a $10.4M first day and $36.3M opening weekend, and Golden Circle is expected to beat that, which is mindblowing for a non-superhero sequel in this day and age.

In regards to last night’s previews, it blows away previous September actioners’ Thursday nights, The Equalizer ($1.45M) and The Magnificent Seven ($1.75M).

Golden Circle is expected to lead a fourth weekend in September with a high $40M-plus gross at 4,003 theaters (including Imax/PLF), with pics No. 2 and 3 (Warner Bros.’ The Lego Ninjago Movie and New Line’s It) making $25M-$30M-plus each — a record that the autumn month has never seen before. Already, Golden Circle has logged $12.7M overeseas from 50 markets including previews and opening days. Ninjago did not have any previews Thursday (it was a school night) but is playing at 4,047 theaters today. Also opening wide this weekend is Entertainment Studios’ horror title Friend Request which also previewed last night making $110K at 1,500 sites. Rivals believe Friend Request will gross around $4M, while the Byron Allen studio is hoping for at least double that.

New Line’s It became the highest grossing horror film at the domestic B.O. yesterday with a running cume of $236.3M, finally stepping over Warner Bros.’ 1973 classic The Exorcist ($232.9M).

Awards season is definitely alive and kicking on the specialty circuit with titles like Fox Searchlight’s The Battle of the Sexes, Roadside Attractions’ Stronger, and Focus Features’ Victoria and Abdul.

'Kidnap' By The Numbers: Week 7 Breakdown

The Halle Berry-starrer 'Kidnap', which marks the first release for Aviron Pictures, debuted in theaters on August 4th. View the results for its seventh week of release beneath:

Theater Count: 506 (-412)

09/15/2017: $32,986
09/16/2017: $53,135
09/17/2017: $36,055

Weekend Total: $122,176

09/18/2017: $9,025
09/19/2017: $15,416
09/20/2017: $
09/21/2017: $

Cumulative Total: $30,447,499

'Kidnap' By The Numbers: Week 6 Breakdown

The Halle Berry-starrer 'Kidnap', which marks the first release for Aviron Pictures, debuted in theaters on August 4th. View the results for its sixth week of release beneath:

Theater Count: 918 (-771)

09/08/2017: $55,534
09/09/2017: $96,703
09/10/2017: $58,174

Weekend Total: $210,411

09/11/2017: $16,123
09/12/2017: $32,794
09/13/2017: $21,316
09/14/2017: $19,123

Cumulative Total: $30,300,882

'Kidnap' By The Numbers: Week 5 Breakdown

The Halle Berry-starrer 'Kidnap', which marks the first release for Aviron Pictures, debuted in theaters on August 4th. View the results for its fifth week of release beneath:

Theater Count: 1,689 (-4)

09/01/2017: $373,579
09/02/2017: $614,258
09/03/2017: $637,908

Weekend Total: $1,625,744

09/04/2017: $400,879
09/05/2017: $118,121
09/06/2017: $71,291
09/07/2017: $42,212

Cumulative Total: $30,001,115

'Kidnap' By The Numbers: Week 4 Breakdown

The Halle Berry-starrer 'Kidnap', which marks the first release for Aviron Pictures, debuted in theaters on August 4th. View the results for its fourth week of release beneath:

Theater Count: 1,693 (-652)

08/25/2017: $454,257
08/26/2017: $600,681
08/27/2017: $447,515

Weekend Total: $1,502,453

08/28/2017: $124,749
08/29/2017: $197,658
08/30/2017: $120,971
08/31/2017: $127,698

Cumulative Total: $27,742,867

'Kidnap' By The Numbers: Week 3 Breakdown

The Halle Berry-starrer 'Kidnap', which marks the first release for Aviron Pictures, debuted in theaters on August 4th. View the results for its third week of release beneath:

Theater Count: 2,345 (-73)

08/18/2017: $868,214
08/19/2017: $1,257,565
08/20/2017: $835,696

Weekend Total: $2,961,475

08/21/2017: $259,451
08/22/2017: $414,201
08/23/2017: $251,649
08/24/2017: $216,879

Cumulative Total: $25,669,338

'Kidnap' By The Numbers: Week 2 Breakdown

The Halle Berry-starrer 'Kidnap', which marks the first release for Aviron Pictures, debuted in theaters on August 4th. View the results for its second week of release beneath:

Theater Count: 2,418 (+40)

08/11/2017: $1,497,041
08/12/2017: $2,161,540
08/13/2017: $1,438,242

Weekend Total: $5,096,823

08/14/2017: $537,201
08/15/2017: $844,384
08/16/2017: $489,740
08/17/2017: $428,252

Cumulative Total: $21,565,683

'Kidnap' By The Numbers: Week 1 Breakdown (Updated)

The Halle Berry-starrer 'Kidnap', which marks the first release for Aviron Pictures, debuted in theaters this past weekend. View the results for its first week of release beneath:

Theater Count: 2,378 (Opening Weekend)

08/04/2017: $3,729,150
08/05/2017: $3,645,468
08/06/2017: $2,641,705

Weekend Total: $10,016,323

08/07/2017: $1,094,118
08/08/2017: $1,451,174
08/09/2017: $805,308
08/10/2017: $757,360

Cumulative Total: $14,169,283

Halle Berry Exceeds Projections As 'Kidnap' Rakes In $10M

DEADLINE: While diversity was present on the marquee with three films starring black actors, Aviron is celebrating a win with its Halle Berry popcorn movie Kidnap, which is estimated to have pulled in $10.2M, according to Aviron. The film, which was shot three years ago and buried beneath Relativity’s financial woes, was rescued by David Dinerstein’s new film label for an estimated $3M and will profit toward the end. Lotus Entertainment handled foreign pre-sales on Kidnap and originally got the project off the ground.

“We’re extremely pleased with the weekend results for Kidnap,” said Aviron chief David Dinerstein this morning. “As Aviron’s first release, it surpassed industry expectations. Positive audience response and the summer play yet to come should result in a solid total box office return.”

There wasn’t any fat on the bones in regard to the number of theaters Kidnap rolled into, which numbered 2,378 venues. Aviron specifically targeted African-American, Hispanic and female moviegoers with a P&A spend in the teens, versus what many say was $40M for Detroit. Again, two very different movies, in that Kidnap is pure escapist entertainment. The pic played broad to Caucasians (46%), African-Americans (25%) and Hispanic audiences (22%). Females under 25 (21%) loved Kidnap the most at 85% positive, while females over 25 (42%) gave the Luis Prieto-directed movie a 73% positive.

Kidnap was the little engine that could this weekend. Another feather in Aviron’s cap this summer was that they handled the marketing on Entertainment Studios’ $43.1M-grossing genre sleeper 47 Meters Down.