Hotel Transylvania 2 won the box office this weekend with a strong $47.5 million across 3,754 theaters, surpassing competitors The Intern and Everest.
The animated feature set a new September record, passing the original Hotel Transylvania’s $42.5 million debut back in 2012. With an $80 million production tag, the film appealed greatly to families, earning a solid A minus CinemaScore and a 52 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics.
“We had a great date, and this is a big win for Sony Pictures Animation,” said Sony president of marketing Josh Greenstein. “And the movie is exploding.”
Original voices from the first film—Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon—returned for the sequel, with Keegan-Michael Key replacing CeeLo Green as Murray the Mummy.
Following in second at the box office this weekend is Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro’s The Intern with $18.2 million from 3,305 theaters. Directed by Nancy Meyers, the comedy targeted older adults, who typically don’t rush out on opening weekends.
“This is a terrific result, and Nancy Meyers really is a brand,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution executive vice president. “It’s not just the stories that attract people. It’s the lifestyle, it’s the sets, it’s the clothes.”
The Intern stars Hathaway as a young executive who hires an older man (De Niro) to be her intern. It skewed primarily to females (62 percent) and a crowd that was over the age of 50 (55 percent). Similar to Transylvania 2, the film earned an A minus CinemaScore and a 57 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics.
Baltasar Kormakur’s Everest expanded over the weekend, taking in $13.1 million across 3,006 theaters (10-day domestic total is $23.1 million) for a fourth place finish. Though the film earned an A CinemaScore, it performed much less than expected.
“You have to look at it as a cumulative gross,” said Nick Carpou, Universal’s distribution chief. “Both weekends are connected.”
The weekend’s other wide release was Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno with $3.5 million across 1,540 locations, finishing in ninth place. The horror film, released via Blumhouse’s new label BH Tilt, is about a young woman who has a nasty encounter with Peruvian cannibals. Audience members gave the film a C minus CinemaScore, while critics gave it a 38 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Eli made a terrifying movie for die-hard horror fans that we were proud to have as the first release in our targeting experiment. We tried something new, got close to our goal and are excited to analyze the results and apply what we learn to the next movies under this model,” said John Hegeman, who oversaw the marketing campaign for BH Tilt.
Finishing in third place was Fox’s Maze Runner: The Scorch Trial’s, falling 54 percent in its second week to $14 million from 3,792 locations (domestic total of $51.7 million). Johnny Depp’s Black Mass rounds out the top five with $11.5 million (domestic total of $42.6 million).
“This is the perfect September weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. “We’re bridging the gap between summer and the fall movie season and audiences seem to be responding to the variety of very different entertainment.”
Top 10 Films at Weekend Box Office: September 25-27
- Hotel Transylvania 2 — $47.5 million
- The Intern — $18.2 million
- Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials — $14.0 million
- Everest — $13.1 million
- Black Mass — $11.5 million
- The Visit — $6.7 million
- The Perfect Guy — $4.8 million
- War Room— $4.3 million
- The Green Inferno — $3.5 million
- Sicario — $1.8 million
