Movies

Box Office Recap: ‘Madea’ Conquers, ‘Inferno’ Flops

October 30, 2016

Tom Hanks’ Inferno was no match for Tyler Perry’s Madea.

Boo Madea Halloween

Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween dominated the box office once more with $16.7 million from 2,999 theaters, bringing its domestic total to $52 million.

Meanwhile, the weekend’s newcomer Inferno, starring Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones, flopped with $15 million from 3,575 theaters. Ron Howard’s latest Dan Brown adaptation – the third installment in the Da Vinci Code franchise – was expected to earn within $20 million-$30 million, going into the weekend. Instead, it earned much less than its predecessors (2006’s The Da Vinci Code with $77 million and 2009’s Angels & Demons with $46 million).

READ MORE: Ron Howard: Filming ‘Inferno’ in Florence Was A Nightmare

“This was a serious meltdown,” said Jeff Bock, box office analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “It shows how fickle audiences can be. When studios release a sequel they don’t want, they just turn their shoulder.”

Though it bombed domestically – with a 20 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics – overseas, the film managed to earn an estimated $132.9 million since launching earlier this month.

“We’re disappointed in the U.S. opening, but we’re very pleased with how the film is performing internationally,” said Sony worldwide president of marketing and distribution Josh Greenstein.

Third place went to Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back with $9.6 million for a 10-day domestic total of $39.7 million.

Rounding out the top five is Ben Affleck’s The Accountant and Universal and Blumhouse Productions’ prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil, with $8.5 million (domestic cume of $61.3 million) and $7.1 million (domestic cume of $24.6 million), respectively.

“We need a box office hero,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore. “We need a great movie to get us out of the box office doldrums.”