Weekend Box Office: Night School offers up a lesson in lowered expectations
Turns out that this last weekend wasn’t just a crappy time for an entire half of the human population of America—it was also pretty sucky for theaters, too. Even the country’s top performer, Tiffany Haddish and Kevin Hart’s new comic collaboration Night School, couldn’t do much more than make back its budget, posting a tepid $28 million at the weekend box office. (It’s remotely possible that, for whatever reason, people just weren’t in the mood to watch smart, funny women bend over backwards to give lousy dudes a host of second and third chances. Weird!)
Night School still posted better numbers than last weekend’s other national debut, Smallfoot, which couldn’t scare up more than $23 million—despite the inarguable fact that Zendaya is Meechee. The Warner Bros. animated musical came in ahead of The House With A Clock In Its Walls, now in its second week and adding another $12.5 million to its coffers, and also in front of just-released slasher throwback Hell Fest ($5 million).
Crazy Rich Asians remains the biggest success story of the season, adding another $4 million in its seventh week to brings its total up to $165 million. The Predator, White Boy Rick, and Peppermint rounded out the top 10 with a couple million each, suggesting that America’s tastes for alien baddies, charming drug dealers, and vigilante moms might ultimately be on the wane.