Box office: 'Terrifier 3' wins weekend, 'Joker 2' suffers historic decline and 'The Apprentice' is dismissed

Indie slasher film Terrible 3 Easily won a weekend of intrigue and carnage at the domestic box office, where Joker: Folie à Deux It is suffering the worst decline in history for a comic book movie and the biggest of any movie.

Cineverse and Icon Events terrible The trilogy is set to debut with an opening in the $16 million to $17 million range from 1,988 theaters.

The next closest film wild robotWhich continues to shine for DreamWorks Animation and Universal. Now in its third weekend, the family pic is on track to earn another $13.9 million from 3,854 theaters.

Warner Bros.' Holdover Beetlejuice Beetlejuice It's now available at home on premium VOD but continues to flex its theatrical muscles The Tim Burton-directed sequel finished third with an estimated gross of $7.2 million to $7.4 million from 2,408 locations as it crossed the $275 million mark domestically in its sixth weekend.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Even beating Todd Phillips the joker The sequel, which fell off a cliff in its second outing with an estimated $6.6 million to $6.8 million from 4,102 theaters, a historic drop of 82 percent. so far, Marvels At 78 percent, it holds the record for the worst second-weekend decline among comic book movies.

when Terrible 3 In its debut waning and burning, other new nationwide openers — including high-profile awards contenders — have struggled to find an audience.

Briarcliff's Donald Trump Movie apprentice — which Trump tried to block from appearing in theaters — is looking to debut in the $1.5 million range from 1,740 locations. This puts it in a close race with Holdover Say no evil for a 10th-place finish (rival studios appear to exist next). Pre-release tracking shows the film opening in the $3 million range.

apprenticewhich had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and later played at the Telluride Film Festival, doing most of its business in liberal enclaves in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Chicago. It boasted decent reviews, though audiences gave it a B- Cinemascore.

Briarcliff, which acquired the film's US rights at the 11th hour, had just five weeks to sell apprenticewhich launched a Kickstarter campaign to help raise money for marketing costs. Briarcliff leads Tom Ortenberg, who won Best Picture Spotlightbelieves apprentice will grow steadily and that opening gross does not seal the fate of the film.

Before the pandemic, indie distributors typically opened in New York and Los Angeles to build word of their awards contenders, versus launching nationwide and risking losing theaters quickly if a film didn't bring in traffic. Platform releases have become less common.

Focus Features has also decided on a nationwide release for the critically acclaimed Oscar hopeful piece by pieceAn animated bibliographic doc about Pharrell Williams. The movie, which earned a glowing A CinemaScore, debuts this weekend in 1,865 theaters and is projected to finish sixth with $3.5 million. That's not bad for a documentary.

piece by pieceCo-created with LEGO, another award contender, is in close competition with Jason Reitman's narrative feature saturday nightA love letter to Lorne Michaels Saturday Night Live. The film also starred in Telluride, which is considered ground zero for launching an Oscar campaign.

From Sony, saturday night Expanding massively after playing the first two weekends in select cities like LA and New York The generally well-reviewed film is projecting a weekly gross of $3.5 million from 2,309 theaters after earning a B+ CinemaScore.

Like Briarcliff, Sony believes saturday night will find its progress.

After five consecutive weekends of growth, this weekend's box office is on track to be down 45 percent from the same frame last year. A major reason is failure Joker: Folie à DeuxBut the overall soft marketplace isn't helping.

Numbers will be updated Sunday morning.