The Magnificent Seven Shoots to the Top

MGM/Columbia Pictures’ Western remake The Magnificent Seven shot its way to first place at the box office last weekend (Sept. 23-25) with a $34.70 million debut.

The Magnificent Seven took first place in the box office over the weekend with $34.70 million.
(Photo: Sam Emerson/MGM/Columbia PIctures)

The movie stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke as members of a vigilante group defending their hometown against an invading industrialist. The film earned a solid opening, but fell far short of the most optimistic estimates that it might contend for the highest September opening ever. In fact, it didn’t even have the best opening of this September, coming in behind Sully’s $35.0 million opening two weeks ago.

Compared with other recent Westerns, The Magnificent Seven opened higher than its competition from the past few years. It started 15.2 percent above the $30.12 million opening of 2012’s Django Unchained, 18.8 percent above the $29.21 million debut of 2013’s The Lone Ranger and 39.8 percent ahead of the $24.83 million start of 2010’s True Grit. Compared with Denzel Washington’s last film, it debuted 1.7 percent higher than the $34.13 million debut of 2014’s The Equalizer on the same weekend two years ago. Compared with Washington’s last team-up with Ethan Hawke, The Magnificent Seven opened about 1.4 percent above the inflation-adjusted opening for 2001’s Training Day.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ animated Storks debuted in second place with a bit less than many analysts expected at $21.31 million. The film is about a world where storks deliver packages instead of babies and starred the voices of Andy Samberg, Kelsey Grammer and Jennifer Aniston. Compared with other recent animated bird films, Storks started 45.8 percent behind the $39.32 million opening of 2014’s Rio 2 and 32.3 percent ahead of the disappointing $16.11 million start of 2010’s Legend of the Guardians.

Warner Bros.’ biopic Sully starring Tom Hanks ended its two-week rein on top of the box office with a third place $13.53 million take, a 37.5 percent drop from the previous week. Universal Pictures’ romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Baby starring Renee Zellweger fell 45.6 percent to a $4.66 million fifth place. To put that into perspective, the previous two installments in the trilogy experienced a negligible second-weekend declines of only 5.1 percent and the rarely-seen second weekend increase. Open Road Films’ Snowden starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt rounded out the top five with a 49.3 percent drop to $4.06 million.

Mark Heckathorn

Editor-in-Chief Mark Heckathorn is a journalist, movie buff and foodie. He oversees DC on Heels editorial operations as well as strategic planning and staff development. Reach him with story ideas or suggestions at dcoheditor (at) gmail (dot) com.