There Will Be Blood: Box Office Could Kill For Second Straight Weekend On Backs Of Evil Clown, Eerie Mom

Will “It” kill “mother!” or will “American Assassin” take them both out?

Whether the head-to-head horror flicks take top honors or the spy thriller infiltrates moviegoers’ pocketbooks is largely irrelevant: the box office is expected to see its second straight robust weekend.

“In our opinion, this weekend's Top 10 films could gross $91 million, which would drive revenue up 28 percent (year to year),” MKM Managing Director Eric Handler said in a note.

The two good weekends come after a historically bad summer. But September was kick-started by “It,” the movie about a kid-killing clown that took in $123 million last weekend for Time Warner Inc TWX. That’s more than the full four-day take during the Labor Day frame.

Fear And Loving

Horror fans who haven’t seen “It” will have to decide between it and director Darren Aronofsky’s eerie “mother!,” which stars box-office magnet Jennifer Lawrence, along with Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer and Ed Harris.

Handler thinks “It” will keep its clown-fingered clutches on the top spot, dropping 60 percent but still pulling in $50 million.

The grammar-challenged “mother!” will vie for second with self-descriptive “American Assassin,” a Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) LGF/CBS Corporation CBS production that stars Michael Keaton.

The Reese Witherspoon rom-com “Home Again” should snag fourth, with holdover “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” rounding out the top five.

“Horror is the least scary genre when it comes to profitability and has almost no peer when it comes to the cost/benefit analysis,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore, Inc.

Box Office Seriously Backloaded

Quarter to date is down 18.4 percent through Sept. 13, but the weekend after this one sees seemingly surefire sequels “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” by Twenty-First Century Fox Inc FOXA and Warner’s “The Lego NinJago Movie.”

Other potential blockbusters this year include Warner’s “Justice League,” and "Blade Runner 2049" and the Walt Disney Co DIS titans “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” and “Coco,” a Pixar flick.

Even Exhibitor Execs Upping Investments

Handler said it's a good sign that exhibitor execs are buying their own stock, namely:

CEO Adam Aron adding to his position this week with 35,000 shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC at $15.79 a share. Handler rated AMC a Buy with a $28 price target.
CEO Mark Zoradi last week bought 5,000 shares at $32.19 in Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CNK Handler rated it a Buy with a $46 price target.
CFO David Ownby purchased 7,500 at $14.04 last month in Regal Entertainment Group RGC. Handler rated it a Buy with a $20 price target.