Weekend Box Office: Barbarian leads 2nd slowest weekend of 2022

September just keeps getting worse! With the top ten accumulating just $33.2 million this weekend, it marks the second lowest Weekend take of 2022 behind the weekend of January 28 when Spider-Man: No Way Home took first place in its 7th week of release.

The weekend had potential for a breakout hit with the Stephen King adaptation of Salem’s Lot originally scheduled for release, however Covid related issues saw that film delayed several months. Disney (who acquired Barbarian’s original studio: 20th Century Fox in 2019) saw a horror shaped void in the schedule and pounced on it.

That schedule change may have actually paid off as Barbarian opened better than expected (although our predictions were right on the money) to $10 million. That may not seem like a big victory, however the film was tracking to open in the same underwhelming range as The Invitation with around $7 million, so anything above that is a win. The bad news for this Airbnb horror thriller is that there seems to be a big divide between the critics and Joe Blow (pun intended) public with the film currently sitting at a 92% fresh on Rotten tomatoes but only a C+ Cinemascore (a score that measures audience reactions as they leave the theater.) It will be interesting to see how this one plays out in the weeks to come as horror movies tend to be front loaded, but with a good month and half until Halloween, this one could have decent legs.

Coming in second is the Bollywood release of Brahmāstra: Part One- Shiva with an estimated $4.4 million. This is lower than the previous hit Indian release of RRR back in March of this year, however that film played on nearly 500 more screens. Sticking this film on a date with basically no competition was a stroke of genius by the studio, however with these foreign films it is likely that it would have these types of numbers no matter when it was released as they tend to have their set audiences who will venture out to the theater no matter when they are released. 

The remainder of the Top 5 saw Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise continue to duke it out for those late summer/ early fall box office dollars. This week’s battle went to Brad Pitt as his Bullet Train finished in 3rd place with $3.2 million and a running total of $92.5 million. To go a little bit corny, Bullet Train is proving to be the little movie that could as it continues to “think it can” and inch closer and closer to that magical $100 million mark. 

Tom Cruise wouldn’t be far behind with Top Gun: Maverick taking in $3.1 million for the weekend and a running total of $705.6 million. With that small a gap between the two movies, it is possible we can see a flip flop when final numbers are released on Monday.

Rounding out the top 5 is DC’s League of Super Pets with $2.8 million and a current domestic total of $85.4 million. This is actually really good news for the animated film as it started a bit soft but has had pretty solid legs. With $15 million to go, I’m not sure it will hit $100 million domestic, but it is possible as there doesn’t seem to be a big animated family film until Disney’s Strange World on November 23.

After The Invitation in 6th place with $2.6 million, we get the new faith based film Lifemark with $2.2 Million.

If you had asked me back in the early nineties if Kirk Cameron would be a viable box office draw, I’d probably have said no, but I bet the dude who played the homeless kid on Growing Pains will end up being one of the biggest stars of all time. Well this week Cameron gets the win as he has a film finishing in the top 10 and DiCaprio doesn’t! These faith based movies are big business, generally having strong opening weekends with large second week drop offs. However with small budgets, those opening weekends tend to be all these films need.

Rounding out the top ten are holdovers Beast with $1.8 million; Minions: The Rise of Gru continuing its domination with $1.6 million and the “more fun” re-release of Spider-Man: No Way Home bringing up the rear with $1.3 million.

Next week has potential for some break outs with the Viola Davis fronted The Woman King and the very fun looking See How They Run featuring Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan and Adrien Brody opening wide alongside the X prequel film: Pearl.

Have you been to the theaters in the past few weeks or have you been waiting for bigger movies to hit? Let its know in the comments. And don’t forget to check out our Poll asking what your favorite horror film has been of the past 5 years.