‘Invitation’ Tops As ‘3000 Years Of Longing’ Bombs

I’m not sure I can call the surprise chart-topping performance of an original horror movie that’s only going to gross $6.5 million for the weekend ‘good news,’ but I’ll take what I can get. Jessica M. Thompson’s The Invitation topped the Friday box office with $2.6 million, including around $725,000 in Thursday previews. The poorly reviewed (29% and 4.9/10 from Rotten Tomatoes) vampire chiller, loosely based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, stars Nathalie Emmanuel and Thomas Doherty. It cost $10 million. I suppose it’s playing better than Sony’s Umma, which earned $2 million in total this past March, but I digress. I am slightly intrigued by the hook and may see this one with my wife if my oldest is willing to watch her younger siblings tonight. Otherwise, I’m sure we can find something on Shudder.

George Miller returned to cinemas with United Artists Releasing’s Three Thousand Years of Longing. The visually dynamic and generally compelling fantasy about a lonely workaholic who stumbles upon a genie and must figure out how to make wishes that won’t backfire probably wouldn’t have been much of a hit even 20 years ago. Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba are more respected thespians than butts-in-seats draws, and Miller was never much of a marquee filmmaker. Nevertheless, the picture earned $1.14 million on Friday for a likely $2.92 million opening weekend. The picture cost a reported $60 million, and the money is mostly on the screen. I guess Amazon is hoping that lots of folks eventually sample the film on Prime when the time comes. But, hey, at least it got a wide theatrical release, unlike Ron Howard’s 13 Lives.

The next biggest new release was, uh, the IMAX reissue of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Disney offering, timed to promote Disney+’s Andor debuting on September 21, earned $500,000 on Friday for a likely $1.4 million weekend and a new $533.577 million domestic total. As a sign of the times, it will post the best per-theater average ($5,444) for any movie this weekend. If it can avoid sinking like a stone next weekend, it’ll crawl past The Dark Knight ($534.9 million in 2008) on the all-time domestic chart. The Felicity Jones Star Wars story is still $10 million away from The Lion King (2019) domestically and $6.6 million away from The Lion King (1994) worldwide. But since I surmise most IMAX screens are being gifted to Jaws next weekend, well, it’s an uphill battle for the Rebellion.

Bleecker Street’s Breaking earned just $360,000 from 902 theaters on Friday. The well-reviewed hostage drama, starring John Boyega as a Marine vet who robs a bank and takes hostages after being denied support from the Veterans Affairs, should earn $1 million for the weekend. It would be nice if folks (correctly) arguing that John Boyega got screwed by Star Wars and/or that Nicole Beharie got screwed by Sleepy Hollow would also show up for non-franchise flicks, but c’est la vie. Unfun fact: The top-grossing movie on this weekend in 2020 was The New Mutants which earned $7.5 million despite New York and LA mostly being closed for business. Next weekend will be the second anniversary of Tenet’s $9.4 million Fri-Sun domestic debut, and yet the two biggest newbies will be Jaws and Spider-Man: No Way Home.