I disagree that the controversy sunk the film - was anyone expecting it to do well in the first place? Apart from the studio who bought it for like $20M or whatever.
After next weekend, Bridget Jones' Baby is going to have grossed more than Finding Dory.
Judging by my local cinemas, Inferno and GOTT are both doing really well. Nice to see the box office really liven up after the drought we've had since early August.
It's only going to continue, with Trolls and Doctor Strange out next week.
Ouch. Opening against Trolls = bad idea.
the controversy has existed for several weeks/months now - it would have an effect on the opening and therefore overall run, but it wouldnt be responsible for a drop like that. A controversy that supposedly is negatively effecting a movie doesn't frontload it.
westerns generally do not perform very well, I would hardly call Mag7 a "well known property" given that most people going to see it weren't even born when the original was released.
Ethan Hawke is not, and never has been, a box office draw, and Chris Pratt's power is completely untested.
It did fine, slightly better than I expected.