Yep, that's the way Hollywood works now. It's unusual to get three sequels opening in wide release at the same time. Of the three, Cruise's "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" was expected to do the best, having the most star power and the kind of action-hero plot that makes for blockbusters at any time of year. Even so, the 54-year-old star isn't the draw he used to be, at least not in America. So predictions for "Never" hovered at a debut near $20 million.
As for "Ouija: Origin of Evil," no one expected it to match the $19.8 million debut of the original two Octobers ago. Neither critics nor audiences liked it very much, though it still managed to earn $51 million domestically and a similar amount abroad. Still, the new one is the only new horror movie in theaters this Halloween season, so it was supposed to come in a close third with about $17 million.
Why are sequel-nomics working so much better for Perry than for Cruise or the "Ouija" franchise? Here are five factors that were at play over the weekend:
1. A Crowded Multiplex
In fact, there were four wide releases this weekend, including the Zach Galifianakis spy comedy "Keeping Up With the Joneses," whose low expectations going into the weekend proved justified when it opened in seventh place with a terrible $5.6 million. There were almost five wide releases until faith-based drama "I'm Not Ashamed" scaled down its release to just 505 screens. (Its distributor's pessimism was also justified, as the movie opened at No. 16 with just $900,000 in estimated sales, or a dismal $1,782 per theater.)
"Jack Reacher" had to compete against last weekend's champ "The Accountant," which lost a better-than-expected 43 percent of its first-weekend business, coming in fourth with $14.0 million. It seems unwise that Paramount sandwiched the "Reacher" sequel between "The Accountant" and next weekend's "Inferno," but given how much the success of "The Accountant" has surprised analysts, maybe the studio didn't consider the Ben Affleck thriller much of a threat. Oops.
2. Star Power
As for Perry, he's used to openings above $20 million, especially for his movies featuring Madea, so the $16.0 million debut of 2013's "A Madea Christmas" was a shock. An even bigger shock was that "Single Mom's Club" opened with a meager $8 million, on the way to a total gross of less than $16 million. And then, after having averaged a movie release every six months or so for the previous decade, his assembly line shut down for two and a half years. So it's no wonder that box office pundits figured his star power had dimmed enough to keep "Madea Halloween" from opening above $20 million.
Fortunately for Perry, his audience has neither forgotten nor deserted him. If anything, he's crossing over beyond his core audience of churchgoing African-Americans. They used to make up 80 or 90 percent of his ticket sales, but this weekend, they were only 60 percent, indicating that Perry is drawing a bigger non-black audience than ever before.
By the way, the reason no one expected much from "Joneses," besides the comedy's weak reviews, is that Galifianakis isn't a box office draw, as is evident from his flop "Masterminds" just three weeks ago.
3. The Teens
Plus, it seems "Ouija" studio Universal underestimated the indifference of its target audience to the franchise.
4. The Reviews
But how can that be? The first "Ouija" was a sleeper hit. Critics loathed it, but they're expected to hate horror movies. "Origin of Evil," however, has been a shocker in that critics actually like this horror sequel -- a lot. It has a healthy 81 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, making it far and away the best reviewed of the five major releases this weekend.
But of course, not everyone cares what critics think. Perry's hits have been impervious to criticism, and so have horror movies that cater to young viewers. Older viewers do still care a little, which is why the poor 40 percent RT rating for "Jack Reacher" may have kept Cruise from scaring up more sales than "Boo!"
5. Word-of-mouth
"Joneses" got a weak CinemaScore grade, too (B-), while "Never Go Back" earned an okay-but-not-great B+. "Boo!" earned a strong A, suggesting that Perry delivered what his audience expects and likes, in a way that his competitors this weekend did not.