“Terrifier 3” beats “Joker” and takes first place in terms of ticket sales

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NEW YORK (AP) – The movie scene this weekend featured Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, a movie about Donald Trump, the origin story of “Saturday Night Live” and even Pharrell Williams as Lego. In the end, they were all defeated by a clown with an axe.

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“Terrifier 3,” a gory, low-budget slasher from small distributor Cineverse, topped weekend sales with $18.3 million, according to Sunday estimates. The film, a sequel to 2022's “Terrifier 2” ($15 million in worldwide ticket sales), brings back the murderous clown Art (David Howard Thornton) and unleashes him at a Christmas party in the guise of Santa Claus.

That “Terrifier 3” could far exceed expectations and leapfrog both major studios and awards hopefuls was only possible thanks to the disaster of “Joker: Folie a Deux.” After Todd Phillips' “Joker” sequel starring Phoenix and Lady Gaga had a much worse start last weekend (and a “D” CinemaScore rating from audiences), Warner Bros.' premiere in its second weekend it dropped a staggering 81%. , bringing in just $7.1 million.

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For a superhero film, such a decline is unprecedented. Disappointments like “The Marvels,” “The Flash” and “Shazam Fury of the Gods” performed better in their second weekends. Such massive rejection by audiences and critics is especially unusual for a sequel to a massive hit like 2019's “Joker.” The film, also produced by Phillips and Phoenix, grossed over $1 billion worldwide on a $60 million budget.

The sequel was more expensive, costing around $200 million. This means that “Joker: Folie à Deux” is heading for a certain box office disaster. It grossed $165.3 million in ticket sales worldwide.

“This is an outlier weekend if ever there was one,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “If you asked anyone a month or even a week ago, would 'Terrorist 3' be the number one film among all major studio films and awards contenders? The release of a film like this only goes to show that audiences are the final arbiter of what wins at the box office.”

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The “Joker” slide allowed “Wild Robot,” the acclaimed Universal Pictures and DreamWorks animated feature, to take second place in its third weekend with $13.4 million. Good reviews of Chris Sanders' adaptation of Peter Brown's book meant that the film, in which Lupita Nyong'o voiced the robot's main character, earned $83.7 million domestically and $148 million worldwide.

Young Donald Trump's film “The Apprentice,” distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment in 1,740 theaters, debuted at a distant No. 10, earning a paltry $1.6 million in ticket sales. While expectations weren't much higher, audiences still showed little enthusiasm for a GOP candidate's origin story in an election year.

If the headlines had translated into ticket sales, the Ali Abbasi film could have done better. “The Apprentice,” starring Sebastian Stan as Trump under the supervision of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), has been a hit since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival until its last-minute release a few weeks before the election. The Trump campaign called the film “election interference by Hollywood elites.”

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Abbasi's film, set in the 1970s and 1980s, tested moviegoers' appetite for political films in an election year. Major studios and specialty studios decided not to acquire it, in part because of the question whether a film about Trump would discourage both liberal and conservative moviegoers. “The Apprentice” will depend on continued awards talks for Strong and Stan to gain a significant footprint in theaters before voters go to the polls.

Jason Reitman's “Saturday Night” didn't spark a nationwide expansion. The film, which featured an ensemble cast led by Gabriel LaBelle's Lorne Michaels, collected $3.4 million from 2,288 locations. The Sony Pictures release, about the behind-the-scenes drama when an NBC sketch comedy is scheduled to first air in 1975, will likely need to make a bigger impression on viewers to survive awards season.

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“Piece by Piece,” a hybrid of a Pharrell Williams documentary and biopic animated in Lego form, was also hoped to appeal to audiences. The acclaimed Focus Features film, directed by veteran documentarian Morgan Neville (“20 Feet From Stardom,” “Won't You Be My Neighbor?”), opened with $3.8 million from 1,865 theaters.

But the debut of “Piece By Piece”, although weak for a Lego animated film, was very good for a documentary. “Piece by Piece,” which earned a top CinemaScore over the weekend and an “A” from audiences, could play well in the coming weeks. Budgeted at a modest $16 million, the film is also likely to become the year's highest-grossing documentary – if “Piece By Piece” can be called that.

“We Live in Time” – a tearful drama starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, achieved one of the best average results per cinema this year during its premiere on five screens. The A24 premiere, which will go nationwide next weekend, debuted with $255,911 and an average per screen of $51,000.

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In addition to the success of Warner Bros. “Beetlejuice” (which grossed $7.1 million in the six weekends of its release despite having recently gone on video-on-demand), Hollywood's decline is struggling to get going. Low-budget horror movies like “Terrifier 3” are still a solid pick in theaters, but this fall has been mostly characterized by bombs like “Joker: Folie a Deux” and “Megalopolis.”

This time last year, Taylor Swift significantly increased box office sales with “The Eras Tour.” According to Comscore, that number is down 45% this weekend compared to the same time last year.

Friday through Sunday ticket sales are estimated at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final national data will be published on Monday.

1. “Terrorizer 3” – $18.3 million.

2. “Wild Robot” – $13.5 million.

3. “Joker: Folie à Deux” – $7.1 million.

4. “Beetlejuice” – $7.1 million.

5. “Piece by Piece” – $3.8 million.

6. “Transformers 1” – $3.7 million.

7. “Saturday Night” – $3.4 million.

8. “My Hero Academia: You're Next” – $3 million.

9. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” – $2.3 million.

10. “The Apprentice” – $1.6 million.

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