'Midway' Scores Surprise #1 Finish as 'Doctor Sleep' is Caught Napping

Heading into the weekend we were anticipating a top ten that would deliver around $110 million, as it turns out the top ten currently falls just short of a combined $100 million as Lionsgate's Midway delivered a surprise #1 finish, topping WB's Doctor Sleep, which slipped to second and well below expectations. Paramount's Playing with Fire joined Midway in outperforming expectations while Universal's Last Christmas fell below Mojo's forecast, but well within studio expectations.

At the top of the weekend box office is Lionsgate's Midway, finishing ahead of expectations with an estimated $17.5 million from 3,242 locations. The film also scored an "A" CinemaScore from opening day audiences and should expect a strong performance over Veteran's Day tomorrow that should push the film's four-day gross over $20 million. Overall, the opening weekend audience skewed male and older with males making up 60% of the audience and 87% of the overall audience coming in aged 25 and older.

Finishing in second is Warner Bros.'s release of Doctor Sleep, which was expected to deliver at least $25 million this weekend, but could only manage just a bit over half that number, finishing with an estimated $14.1 million from 3,855 locations. The film did score a "B+" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, which is solid for a genre film, but that wasn't enough to turn the weekend around. Opening weekend crowds were 57% male and 74% of the overall audience was aged 25 or older. Compared to Pet Sematary, which opened with $24.5 million earlier this year, Doctor Sleep played to a crowd that was older and leaned a bit more male, suggesting ties to Stanley Kubrick's nearly 40-year-old adaptation of The Shining didn't work in the film's favor.

Internationally, after opening in a handful of markets last weekend, Doctor Sleep is now playing in 68 overseas markets and delivered an estimated $13 million this weekend for an overseas cume that now stands at $20 million. This weekend saw the film open in Russia with an estimated $2 million followed by Mexico ($1.5m) and Brazil ($577k). The film will open in Germany next week followed by a November 29 opening in Japan.

Paramount's Playing with Fire scored a third place finish with an estimated $12.8 million, topping expectations which saw the film finishing with $10 million at the most. The film scored a "B+" CinemaScore from opening day audiences. The weekend's audience was 51% male with families making up 61% of the crowd. Internationally the film opened in ten markets with $2.5 million led by a $1.1 million opening in Mexico.

Universal's Last Christmas slipped to fourth with an estimated $11.6 million, which is well within expectation, but a bit lower than Mojo's forecast heading into the weekend. The film scored a "B-" CinemaScore and played to an opening weekend crowd that was 65% female and 65% of the overall audience was aged 25 or older. While the performance is a bit light, it could very easily deliver a solid overall performance over the weeks ahead, playing throughout the holiday season.

Internationally, Last Christmas opened in ten markets with an estimated $3.1 million, half of which came from Australia where it debuted with an estimated $1.58 million. Looking ahead the film will open in Germany and the UK next weekend followed by openings in France (Nov 27), Brazil (Nov 28), Spain (Nov 29), Russia (Dec 5), Korea (Dec 5), Mexico (Dec 6), Japan (Dec 6) and Italy (Dec 19).

Rounding out the top five is Paramount's Terminator: Dark Fate with an estimated $10.8 million, dipping -63% following last weekend's disappointing opening as the film's domestic cume now stands at $48.45 million after ten days in release, already pacing well behind Terminator Genisys, which topped $59 million after its first ten days domestically. Internationally, the film added another $29.9 million this weekend for an overseas cume that now totals over $150 million and a global cume that is just shy of $200 million. This weekend the film debuted in Japan where it brought in an estimated $6 million as China still leads all overseas markets with nearly $45 million.

Falling outside of the top five for the first time since release, WB's Joker added another $9.2 million this weekend for a domestic cume that now stands at $313.5 million. Internationally it added another $20.3 million for an overseas cume that now stands at $671.2 million as it is now just over $15 million shy of reaching the billion dollar mark worldwide with a $984.7 million global cume. Once it reaches that billion dollar mark it will serve as only the fourth DC Comics adaptation to do so joining Aquaman ($1.148b), The Dark Knight Rises ($1.84b) and The Dark Knight ($1.003b).

Currently finishing just outside the top ten based on estimates is Fox Searchlight's Jojo Rabbit, which expanded nationwide into 802 theaters this weekend and finished with an estimated $3.9 million ($4,862 PTA). The film's domestic cume now tops $9 million domestically. The film will expand slightly next weekend, looking to continue its strong run in moderate release.

In limited release, Amazon Studios's Honey Boy opened in four locations this weekend with an estimated $288,825 for a chart-topping $72,206 per theater average. The film will expand further next week, reaching the top 15 markets over the next two weekends before a nationwide expansion timed to the announcement of Golden Globe nominations in early December.

Additional limited releases include Greenwich's debut of The Kingmaker in two locations with an estimated $23,600 and Cohen Media's re-release of A Fish in the Bathtub opened with $1,826 from three locations.

Next weekend sees the release of Fox's Ford v Ferrari in 3,500 theaters, Sony will debut the latest adaptation of Charlie's Angels into ~3,300 theaters; and WB will release New Line's The Good Liar into over 2,500 locations.

You can check out all of this weekend's estimated results right here and we'll be updating our charts with weekend actuals on Monday afternoon.

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