Lionsgate’s “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” will close out Labor Day Weekend with an estimated $13.3 million as the four-day box office totals drop to levels not seen since the turn of the century.
According to estimates from comScore, total revenue for the extended weekend is expected to top out at around $95 million.
The last time Labor Day Weekend totals fell below $100 million was in 1999, when poor numbers from new releases left holdover “The Sixth Sense” to carry the weekend to a $98 million total.
With no new releases for the second weekend in a row — and the first Labor Day without a new release since 1992 — there were some fears that weekend totals could sink even lower.
But strong holdover numbers from recent releases were able to stem the tide. Sitting just behind “Hitman’s Bodyguard” is Warner Bros.’ “Annabelle: Creation,” which finished with an estimated four-day total of $9.3 million to bring its cume to just under $91 million.
The Weinstein Company takes third and fourth place this weekend, with “Wind River” making $8 million after expanding 2,600 screens and “Leap!” making $6.5 million in its second weekend. “Logan Lucky” completes the top 5 with $5.6 million.
The widest new release this weekend was TWC’s “Tulip Fever,” which made only $1.4 million from 765 screens this weekend. It was outperformed by a 40th anniversary re-release of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” which made $2.3 million from 900 locations.
With the summer box office season now at a close, the strong Q1 numbers brought by robust Oscar season releases and a record-breaking March have been erased, as year-to-date totals now stand 5.7 percent down from last year.
Late-year releases like “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” could push annual totals to a respectable finish, but aren’t expected to push them past the $11.3 billion made last year and could finish with an attendance count that’s the lowest since 1992.