Age of The Nerd
Blumhouse’s reign of terror continues to be a bright spot in otherwise light 2017 box office returns. Made on yet another micro-budget of around $5 million, their new film Happy Death Day has opened with an estimated $26 million. Following the financial success of Get Out and Split, Happy Death Day is another example that you don’t need to spend $150 million on a movie to earn huge profits as long as you make a product that people want to see. But, who knows what people want to see. It seems most have zero idea what will fail and what will stick the landing.
Speaking of huge budgets and a misunderstood interest in the lore of a franchise, Blade Runner 2049 finished second with an estimated $15 million. After a disappointing $32 million opening last weekend, the Denis Villeneuve sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner continues to struggle at the box office. While it seems the film is almost universally loved, it has failed to connect in a way that will be profitable for WB. There are parallels between the sequel and the 1982 original. Both struggled to find massive box office success, and one day Blade Runner 2049 will be as revered as the original. The fanbase just may not be correctly represented by the internets love of the franchise.
Finishing third this weekend was the Jackie Chan Taken-esq The Foreigner finishing with an estimated $12 million. It finished in the top five yet again with another $6 million, bringing its domestic total to around $315 million. You can check out our talk with Pennywise actor Bill Skarsgård here. Rounding out the top five is The Mountain Between Us with an estimated $5 million.
Here’s the top-five weekend box office results via Collider:
| Title | Weekend Domestic BO | Total Domestic BO |
| 1. ‘Happy Death Day’ | $26,500,000 | $26,500,000 |
| 2. ‘Blade Runner 2049’ | $15,100,000 | $60,578,387 |
| 3. ‘The Foreigner’ | $12,840,000 | $12,840,000 |
| 4. ‘It’ | $6,050,000 | $314,929,521 |
| 5. ‘The Mountain Between Us’ | $5,650,000 | $20,502,922 |
