Fan-favorite Terrifier 3 came to theaters this past weekend, with Art the Clown leading the way ahead of bigger films: namely the already shaky The Joker: Folie á Deux.
Per lineup, Damian León’s mortician film earned $18.3 million in North America during its opening weekend. This is a very big deal for the series: not only did it surpass the rumored $2 million, but it actually exceeded most expectations that linked it to a $10-11 million start. For comparison, this also tops the $15.7 million global total of Terrifier 2 in 2016. Strong reviews and word of mouth from excited fans will likely take Terrifier 3 further, but can it withstand Smile 2 next weekend and The Venom 3 the weekend after? We shall see.
As for the hit film Clown, the strong hits are hitting Arthur Fleck harder: locally, the film dropped to third place with earnings of $7.055 million, down 82% from its $37.8 million opening. It’s one of the biggest drops in the second weekend of superhero films, dropping much more sharply than last year’s decline of Marvel (78.1%) and The Flash (72.5%). Globally, the film has now earned $165.3 million, and sources told Variety that it may be difficult for the film to break even due to its critical reception and poor word of mouth.
Meanwhile, The Wild Robot happily does what it does best in second place on its home turf. Now in its third week in theaters, the animated film added another $13.45 million to its earnings, reaching $148.5 million worldwide. Dreamworks is surely pleased with how it continues to perform, and as we learned on Saturday, there is already a sequel in the works. As for its remaining September counterparts Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Transformers One, they remain hanging on in theaters: in its sixth weekend, Beetlejuice earned another $7.05 million, bringing its global total income to $420 million. And Transformers earned $3.65 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $52.8 million and $111 million globally so far.
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