We truly enjoyed Hotel Transylvania, but it didn’t set the world afire in terms of box office (it didn’t do badly, we’re just saying). So when Hotel Transylvania 2 was green lit, some in the business were a little surprised. See, there’s this little thing called home video and pay movie channels, and since Adam Sandler channeled his animated Dracula father figure to Selena Gomez’s Mavis, millions of children have fallen in love with their world.
It then should be no surprise that the debut weekend for Hotel Transylvania 2 set a record for box office receipts for the month of September. How much exactly did it make? It took in a whopping $47.5 million, making it one of Sandler’s biggest openings of all time. Sandler’s The Longest Yard actually holds his best box office opening record, and only by a hair on Dracula’s animated head. The Longest Yard banked $47.6 million back in 2005.
The other new flick to hit theaters this week, The Intern, landed in second place and took in a solid $18.2 million. The Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway starring flick from Nancy Meyers should have some legs and be helped in the coming weeks by word of mouth. Third place belonged to last week’s winner, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, with $14 million, taking its total cume to $51.6 million.
The tragic true tale Everest took fourth with $13 million. And closing out the top five was Johnny Depp’s stunner Black Mass with $11.5 million.
Weekend Box Office Top Five:
- Hotel Transylvania 2, $47.5 million
- The Intern, $18.2 million
- Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, $14 million
- Everest, $13 million
- Black Mass, $11.5 million