The megahit JOKER has been king of the box office for the last two weeks, but now it faces solid competition from new releases MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL and ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP. Both movies are expected to do well this weekend and have kicked off their runs with respectable Thursday night openings that saw ZOMBIELAND slicing its way to the top with $2.85 million and MALEFICENT conjuring $2.3 million.
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As for ZOMBIELAND, this second entry comes exactly ten years after the release of the first film, which opened to $24 million and ended with about $75 million domestically. The sequel is gearing up to top that opening, with estimates in the range of $25-$30 million for the weekend. The last action-comedy sequel that opened during a similar frame in October was KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE in 2017, which pulled in a $3.4 million Thursday opening before a $39 million opening weekend. Reviews haven't been as great as for the first movie, but it's still been getting solid marks praising the cast and zombie action, which be enough to bring in casual viewers and fans of the original.
While Disney’s MALEFICENT starring Angelina Jolie came in below ZOMBIELAND’s first evening, that’s to be expected for a family film. The movie’s Thursday night is close to that of this year’s DUMBO, which made $45 million going into the weekend. That number is about where estimates are placed for MALEFICENT’s weekend, which would be far below the $69 million weekend for the first movie in 2014. However, that first movie opened in May when schools were just about out, and this one is coming in as schools are very much in session, so it has a much harder climb. Reviews for the movie have been about what the first movie was met with (41% on RT compared to 53%), but Disney has proven again and again to be critic-proof, for the most part.
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As far as the weekend goes, JOKER is expected to pull out another fantastic weekend, perhaps nabbing second place with a $30+ million weekend in the cards. The movie has blown past it's $50+ million budget and amassed $213 million domestically so far, and over $600 million domestically. The movie superseded expectations last weekend, so who knows, maybe it has more tricks up its sleeve and could pull yet another more-than-expected weekend against zombies and mistresses of evil.
Go see ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP and MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL in theaters now.