By current estimates, Alien: Covenant took the top spot at the box office this weekend by a very narrow margin, racking up $36 million to the estimated $35.1 million earned by the runner-up, Guardians Of Galaxy Vol. 2. A difference of less than a million dollars between first and second place is rare, especially when one of the films in question has been in theaters for three weeks. One might point to Alien: Covenant underperforming its predecessor, Prometheus, which made $51 million on its opening weekend, or to the fact that Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is a commercial juggernaut fueled by a massive $145 million opening weekend. However you spin it (and whichever film ends up taking the top spot once those estimates are replaced by hard figures), America spent a lot of money this weekend on seeing aliens, spaceships, and airlocks on the big screen, as the No. 3 spot was taken by Everything, Everything, an adaptation of a YA novel about a teenage girl who confined to a sterile bubble for medical reasons. Exceeding modest expectations, the relatively low-budget film made $12 million on its opening weekend.
Meanwhile, Snatched, which stars Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer as mother and daughter who get kidnapped while on vacation in Ecuador, dipped to No. 4 with $7.6 million, just ahead of the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (No. 5, $7.2 million). Being outperformed in its second weekend by a direct-to-video-esque, entirely recast fourth entry in a kids’ movie series is only the latest ignominy suffered by King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword. Directed by Guy Ritchie, the $175 million tentpole wannabe—which is actually pretty fun in spots—has turned out to be one of the biggest Hollywood box-office bombs in recent memory. After flopping on its face in an opening weekend that saw it grossing less than $15 million, it limped into sixth place this week with an estimated $6.8 million. The rest of the Top 10 was filled out by The Fate Of The Furious (No. 7, $3.2 million), The Boss Baby (No. 8, $2.8 million), Beauty And The Beast (No. 9, $2.4 million), and How To Be A Latin Lover (No. 10, $2.2 million).
There were no big surprises or breakouts this weekend in terms of per-theater averages, the usual metric of success for smaller and speciality releases. Wakefield, which stars Bryan Cranston as a man hiding in his own attic, made a healthy $14,120 on a single screen, while Steve James’ latest documentary, Abacus: Small Enough To Jail, grossed $13,626 in its lone theater. Both will be expanding to more theaters in the coming weeks.