Tom Cruise's 'American Made' locked in 3-way box office tie with 'It,' 'Kingsman 2'

Box office analysts were expecting Kingsman: The Golden Circle to hold on to the top spot at the box office this weekend without much of a challenge. Instead, it will come down to Sunday’s final numbers to see whether it can hold out against a resilient It and Universal/Cross Creek’s new release, American Made.

All three R-Rated films are currently estimated to make around $17 million this weekend. It, which is in its fourth weekend, currently has a slight edge for the No. 1 spot with a studio-estimated $17.3 million. It will see its domestic total rise to $291 million, making it the highest grossing film released between Labor Day and Halloween. In the coming week, it will become only the fourth R-Rated film to gross over $300 million domestic.

Kingsman, which is in its second weekend, will register a ten-day total of $66.9 million. Analysts were expecting a drop-off for the sequel of around 50 percent, but this result will be a 56.5 percent drop from the $39 million opening total. That means The Golden Circle has made approximately $1 million less than the $67.9 million the first Kingsman to this point in 2015.

As for the new film in theaters, American Made, a $17 million opening is slightly higher than the low-to-mid-teens opening studio and independent projections had for the film last week. The film enjoyed some strong word-of-mouth off of an 87 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and a B+ CinemaScore grade.

But while Universal will take that opening for the $50 million crime film, Tom Cruise’s domestic box office struggles are continuing as this is the actor’s worst opening since Jack Reacher made $15.2 million in 2012. While American Made got traction with older male audiences, audiences under 25 tended to go see Kingsman or It this weekend instead. Next week will see the release of Blade Runner 2049, a film that will appeal to older male audiences who saw the first Blade Runner back in 1982, so the potential audience base for American Made could be even further split by tough competition.

The Lego Ninjago Movie takes a 42 percent drop to take fourth place in its second weekend with $11.7 million, bringing its ten-day total to $35.3 million. Completing the top five is Columbia/Cross Creek’s Flatliners, which made just $6.7 million from 2,552 theaters and finished under conservative studio projections of $7-8 million.

Just outside the top five is Fox Searchlight’s Billie Jean King biopic Battle of the Sexes, which expanded to 1,213 theaters after a limited rollout last weekend. The film performed modestly, making $3.5 million in its first wide weekend.