Johnny Depp‘s mob drama “Black Mass” assured the actor his five-film run of bummer debuts at the box office was over Friday, and was giving Dylan O’Brien and the Fox sequel “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” a bit of a run for the weekend crown.
The biopic of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger opened to $8.8 million from 3,188 theaters Friday, not far behind Fox’s young adult sequel, which debuted with an estimated $11 million from 3,791 locations. On their current pace, “The Scorch Trials” will come in with roughly $30 million for the three days and displace “The Perfect Guy” as No. 1, while the R-rated “Black Mass” will be next with $24 million for Warner Bros.
That a little over the $22 million that analysts projected for the “Black Mass” debut, and under the $35 million predicted for “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.” The crime drama starring Depp, the long-ago “21 Jump Street” heartthrob, received a “B” CinemaScore from first-night audiences, while the young adult saga starring current MTV “Teen Wolf” star O’Brien got a “B.”
Meanwhile, the Universal disaster epic “Everest” was heading for a strong $7 million-plus and a surprise fifth-place finish from an exclusive 3D IMAX and Premium Large Format run designed mainly to build buzz ahead of its wide opening next week. The co-production with Working Title, Cross Creek and Walden Media was doing more than that overseas, where it opened at No. 1 in 12 of 36 markets and was heading for a $26 million weekend.
The weekend’s other wide opener, Paramount’s David Oyelowo–Kate Mara thriller “Captive,” flopped and won’t crack $2 million for the three days. “Captive” took in just $645,000 from 806 theaters and was hanging on to the final spot in the top ten.
Last weekend’s two top films, Sony’s defending champ “The Perfect Guy” and Universal’s M. Night Shyamalan horror film “The Visit” were battling for third and are looking at second weekends in the $11 million and $10 million range, respectively.
In a limited opening, “Sicario” debuted to $133,810 at six locations for Lionsgate. If it stays on the pace the Emily Blunt–Josh Brolin drug cartel thriller will have a three-day per-screen average in the mid-$50,000 range.
Sony Pictures Classics aggressively expanded Lily Tomlin‘s comedy “Grandma” by 891 locations and it took in $403,000 from 1,021 theaters, and is heading for a so-so $1.3 million weekend.
On its first day, “Captive” was topped by the three other openers and holdovers including Sony’s “War Room,” Broad Green’s “A Walk in the Woods” and Universal’s “Straight Outta Compton” It was even beaten out by Paramount’s own “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” which is in its eighth week of release and benefited from a 2-for-1 ticket deal offered by the studio and the largest theater chains.