Box Office Report: Sad Astra, Not Bad Astra

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | September 22, 2019 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | September 22, 2019 |

Did you know that old ladies like Downton Abbey? That’s not just a catty generalization on my part. As Box Office Mojo shows, the opening weekend for the long-awaited (?) movie of the popular series brought in a crowd that was almost three-quarters female and 60% over the age of 35. That enthusiasm saw the movie gross $31 million, the highest opening weekend for Focus Features.

The race for spots two and three came down to Fox Searchlight’s acclaimed sci-fi drama Ad Astra versus the macho frenzy of Rambo: Last Blood. Surprisingly, the former prevailed, but only just, grossing around $19.21 million to the $19.015 million of Sly’s muscles. That’s a big effing deal for a James Gray movie but it’s still a soft opening for a film rumored to have a budget pushing $80 - 100 million. It’s kind of surprising Fox Searchlight had that much hope in it given that Gray is decidedly an indie film-maker with greater clout in Europe than America. Brad Pitt has star power but maybe not the financial pull for something like this. Still, it’s good to see Gray get his moment.

Remember The Goldfinch? Yeah, we don’t blame you if you don’t. After opening last week to dismal numbers, its downward slump continued. The movie fell from eight to 15 on the charts — ouch — and couldn’t even gross $800k in its SECOND week of release. So far it’s made back about a tenth of its budget domestically, so expect this one to be a very costly write-off for Warner Bros.

In limited release news: Anime Promare grossed $88,044 from 31 theaters; documentary Where’s My Roy Cohn? took in $42,364 from four locations; Loro, Paolo Sorrentino’s film about Silvio Berlusconi, made $5,567 from one location.

This coming week sees the release of Judy Garland biopic Judy and yeti animation Abominable.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here.

What films did you watch this weekend? Let us know in the comments.