Historical action film, ‘The Woman King’ crown above all else at theaters over the last weekend of summer. Set in the 1820’s the film is loosely based on a true story of female warriors in west Africa who fought against the slave trade.
It’s an interesting title for this weekend as today sees the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth II ruled the United Kingdom since 1952.
As for the film ‘The Woman King’ and why it doesn’t use the word “Queen” in the title, the movie explains it.
‘The Woman King’ easily took the top spot on the slow weekend, reigning with a total of $19 million.
Far behind it is the horror film ‘Barbarian’. Dropping 37% in its sophomore weekend the film took in $6.3 million.
Horror films gained traction this weekend.
Debuting in the middle of the Weekend Box Office Top 5, ‘Pearl’. Directed by Ti West and starring Mia Goth, the prequel to ‘X’ which premiered earlier this year, scared up $3.1 million.
Mystery comedy ‘See How They Run’ debuted in close pursuit trailing ‘Pearl’ by a couple hundred thousand. Set in the 1950’s, the British mystery stars Irish actress Saoirse Ronan and Americans Sam Rockwell and Adrien Brody.
Playing caboose is ‘Bullet Train’ which pulled into station with $2.5 million. The action-adventure starring Brad Pitt has done well, sticking around for 7 weeks on the Weekend Box Office Top 5.
Will ‘The Woman King’ crown stay next weekend?
That depends on if audiences flock to the re-release of ‘Avatar’. The sci-fi film, directed by James Cameron, was originally released in 2009. The re-release is to stoke audience interest prior to the first of four sequels to be released this December.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (September 16 – 18, 2022)
- ‘The Woman King’ – $19 million – historical (debut)
- ‘Barbarian’ – $6.3 million – horror (drop $3.7 million, 37% down)
- ‘Pearl’ – $3.1 million – horror (debut)
- ‘See How They Run’ – $3.1 million – mystery (debut)
- ‘Bullet Train’ – $2.5 million – action-adventure (drop $800k, 24% down)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 is $34 million. This is a 43% increase for a gain of $10.3 million over last weekend’s total of $23.7 million,
A nice mix of genre films to end the summer.