Game Of Box Offices: Crazy Rich Asians cash in for the second week in a row, The Meg snuffs out Happytime Murders (August 24th, 2018)

“Crazy Rich Asians” reign supreme for the second straight week, earning $24.8 million and fending off the hungry fellow Warner Bros. flick “The Meg,” which grabbed devoured another $12.8 million in its third weekend, having accumulated a total of $105 million. Newcomer “The Happytime Murders” failed to make an impact with only $9.5 million, making it Melissa McCarthey’s lowest opening as a leading performer. “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” stayed put at Number Four and Disney’s “Christopher Robin” held its position at Number Six, with “Mile 22” falling two spots in its second weekend to land between them. “Alpha” proved to be just that, beating out newcomer and fellow “dog” movie (this one involving a robot dog) “A.X.L.” by almost $4 million. The “Papillon” remake starring Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek opened at Number 16 with $1 million and a surprise entry, “Beautifully Broken,” cracked the Top 25 with $589,155.

“Searching,” starring John Cho, opened to $388,769, with a per theater average of $43,197 per 9 screens, making it the Per Theater Average (PTA) winner. “Isle Of Dogs,” which has been on home video for a few weeks now, had a surprise uptick over the weekend, resulting in a +2,116.8% increase, making it the big winner off the Top 25 list, while last weekend’s release “Juliet, Naked,” made a jump from Number 44 to Number 25, making the list with the second biggest increase of the weekend at +295.2%. A dog movie that didn’t fair too well this weekend was “Dog Days,” which had the biggest drop off the List this weekend with a decrease of -89.2%. Also falling off the List was Dwayne Johnson’s “Skyscraper,” Boots Riley’s critical darling “Sorry To Bother You,” the not-well-received YA film “The Darkest Minds,” and the even-less-well-received documentary “Death Of A Nation,” which still has a zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Also, after its tenth weekend, the Mister Rogers documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” finally fell off the list, heading for an imminent home video release.

“Crazy Rich Asians” will be ready to slay the competition for a third weekend in row next weekend, with a landscape that offers absolutely zero challengers. The real battle will be in the runner-up position, where “The Meg” will have to fend off the newcomer “Operation Finale,” which is eyeing an opening around $6.7 million. If “The Meg” falls anywhere around 50%, it would be looking at a $6.4 million weekend, and third place. The science fiction newcomer starring James Franco titled “Kin” is aiming for a $5 million weekend and probably fourth place. Expect a small increase from “Searching” as it goes wide and expect Focus Features’ “The Little Stranger” to make some sort of impact within the Top 25. Another long lasting documentary, “Three Identical Strangers,” will likely have its last week on the list, ending the documentary revolution within the Top 25 over the past few months. Unless “Juliet, Naked” is adding some screens to its limited release, it won’t be sticking around in the Top 25 for very long. “Puzzle” was another independent film that was lucky to land and stick around where it did, but it likely won’t be sticking around for long.

#	Title	Weekend	Total	Budget	Week	LW	CH
1	Crazy Rich Asians (WB)	$24,808,202	($76,616,149)	$30m	2nd	#1
2	The Meg (WB)	$12,812,615	($105,083,261)	$130m	3rd	#2
3	The Happytime Murders (STX)	$9,532,425	($9,532,425)	$40m	1st	N
4	Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Par)	$8,087,385	($193,988,045)	$178m	5th	#4
5	Mile 22 (STX)	$6,366,042	($25,506,996)	$50m	2nd	#3
6	Christopher Robin (BV)	$6,261,783	($77,550,566)	$75m*	4th	#6
7	Alpha (Studio 8)	$6,002,359	($20,562,933)	$51m	2nd	#5
8	BlacKkKlansman (Focus)	$5,098,405	($31,791,945)	$15m	3rd	#7
9	A.X.L. (GR)	$2,798,229	($2,798,229)	$10m*	1st	N
10	Slender Man (SGem)	$2,790,564	($25,408,680)	$10m	3rd	#8
11	Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony)	$2,541,668	($158,659,057)	$80m	7th	#9
12	The Equalizer 2 (Sony)	$2,032,245	($98,052,577)	$62m	6th	#11
13	Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (Uni)	$2,000,880	($115,355,990)	$75m	6th	#10
14	Ant-Man and the Wasp (BV)	$1,791,836	($211,458,535)	$162m*	8th	#12
15	Incredibles 2 (BV)	$1,642,506	($597,055,472)	$200m*	11th	#14
16	Papillon (2018) (BST)	$1,090,073	($1,090,073)	**	1st	N
17	The Spy Who Dumped Me (LGF)	$1,010,334	($32,288,476)	$40m	4th	#13
18	Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Uni)	$741,610	($413,010,305)	$170m	10th	#15
19	Beautifully Broken (AAE)	$589,155	($589,155)	**	1st	N
20	Teen Titans Go! To The Movies (WB)	$437,834	($28,176,673)	$10m	5th	#17
21	Eighth Grade (A24)	$418,107	($12,458,583)	**	7th	#18
22	Searching (SGem)	$388,769	($388,769)	**	1st	N
23	Puzzle (SPC)	$353,449	($1,190,554)	**	5th	#25
24	Three Identical Strangers (Neon)	$319,449	($11,146,212)	**	9th	#19
25	Juliet, Naked (RAtt)	$240,603	($334,835)	**	2nd	#44

***ALL DOMESTIC NUMBERS FROM BOX OFFICE MOJO***

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