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'Sicario' image courtesy of Lionsgate

There is a long history of seemingly commercial films occasionally doing relative belly flops when the time comes to move beyond the arthouse theaters. So it's worth noting that Sicario finally went wide this weekend and came out mostly swinging. The Emily Blunt/Josh Brolin/Benicio Del Toro drug war action thriller expanded to 2,620 theaters (from 59 theaters last weekend and just six the weekend before) and grossed a pretty solid $12.075 million. Its current cume is now $15.04m domestic.

That puts the Lions Gate Entertainment release on course for a domestic total of anywhere from $35m (if it plays like director Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners) to $55m (if it plays like Gone Girl which debuted on this same weekend). The $35 million production (which was acquired by Lionsgate for obviously a lot less than that) is off to a pretty good start for a grim and intense movie that could have easily flamed out after its platform debut.

Where it goes from here is a matter of legs against an onslaught of adult-skewing fare and would-be Oscar bait releases. Next week sees the limited bow of Steve Jobs from Universal while October 30th offers the Sandra Bullock political comedy Our Brand Is Crisis from Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. Sicario has earned rave reviews and solid buzz leading up to the wide expansion. So now it's merely a question of whether it can keep up the proverbial heat for a few more weeks. Of course, if it ends up in the Oscar conversation in a real way, that changes the game significantly, but that's a discussion for a month from now.

In pure holdover news, Hotel Transylvania 2 had a terrific hold in its second weekend earning a strong $33 million second weekend, or a drop of just 32%. It jumped a whopping 108% from Saturday to Sunday, which means (obviously) it's a big draw for kids and families. For comparison, the first Hotel Transylvania made $27m on its second weekend (-36%) and ended day ten with $76m domestic. So yeah, this Adam Sandler animated sequel had a smaller weekend drop than the original despite a larger debut weekend.

That's frankly a little shocking, even if you account for Frankenweenie debuting in the second weekend of the first Hotel Transylvania. At this point, the only real competition is (ironically) Sony's Goosebumps dropping in two weeks (review tomorrow at 10:00 am). The $80 million comedy has earned $90.54m domestic in ten days, running around 20% ahead of Hotel Transylvania.

By the way, the film passed Pixels ($77m) to become Sony's biggest domestic grosser of 2015. Say what you will about Adam Sandler's relationship with Sony, but he will end the year with two of their bigger (give or take ConcussionThe Night BeforeThe Walk, and Goosebumps) films. And yes, I'm presuming Spectre will be Sony's top movie of the year.

Meanwhile, The Intern earned a solid $11.62 million in its second weekend, dropping 34% and bringing its cume to $36.2m. That means the Anne Hathaway/Robert De Niro comedy has topped its $35m production budget. The Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. offering should be a hit if it can do anywhere near as well as the last handful of Nancy Meyers films did overseas. It's already ahead of the ten-day totals of Something's Gotta Give ($33m) and The Holiday ($25m). I'm not expecting the legs of Something's Gotta Give, but even a comparable run to The Holiday (which had a slightly larger second-weekend drop despite a smaller debut weekend) gives the workplace comedy $88m domestic. We'll see.

Speaking of matching the budget, Black Mass should also basically equaled its production budget this weekend, as the $53m Johnny Depp mob drama earned $5.905 million (-46%) in its third weekend, bringing its cume to $52.521m. It's not a runaway hit, but I'm probably the only one complaining thus far. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials earned $7.65m (-46%) in its third weekend for a $63.24m domestic cume. It's trailing The Maze Runner by about 14% and should end its domestic run with around $80-$85m, with pretty solid overseas business ($129m foreign going into the weekend) making up for the domestic shortfall and bigger budget this time around.

Everest is also doing big foreign business, but in America it grossed just $5.5 million (-58%) on its third weekend for a $33.1m total. This one won't quite make its $55m production budget in America, but it has earned $136m worldwide thus far (it crossed $100m overseas this weekend). M. Night Shyamalan's The Visit made $3.9m (-41%) on its fourth weekend and has a new $57.6m domestic cume. That's a relatively impressive hold for a horror film, and it should still end its run with around $70m.

Sony's War Room earned around $2.6 million for the weekend (-36%) to cross the $60m mark. The Perfect Guy made around $2.39m (-50%) for the weekend for a new $52.6m domestic cume (on a $12m budget). 99 Homes expanded this weekend into a whole 19 theaters (c'mon Broad Green, you're going to make me drive to the Landmark aren't you?!), and it should earn $106k (+226%) for its troubles giving it a new $148k domestic cume.

Finally, tragically, Eli Roth's The Green Inferno made around $1.28 million on its second weekend, which is a drop of 64%. That puts the better-than-you'd-think horror movie (it's like an R-rated version of Disney's Jungle Cruise ride) at $5.9m total after ten days. Now for the record, that means the BHTilt release is technically a hit for the targeted distribution model. I'm sure they weren't expecting more than a weekend of halfway decent business. But as someone who still remembers watching a packed audience lose their minds over the first Paranormal Activity or The Ring not so long ago, this new normal kind of bums me out. But that's my problem, and BHTilt's targeted strategy is a relative success. At least I got to see it in a multiplex.

That's a wrap for this weekend. Next weekend sees Warner Bros,' delayed Pan (which is the biggest-budgeted movie ever to open in October) and the limited debut of Universal's Danny Boyle-directed and Aaron Sorkin-penned Steve Jobs. In the meantime, enjoy this Rentrak (NASDAQ: RENT) top-ten list:

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