U.S. Box Office Suffers Worst Labor Day Weekend in Nearly 2 Decades

'The Emoji Movie' is long gone, but let's just go ahead and blame it anyway.

hitman
Lionsgate

Image via Lionsgate

hitman

Hitman's Bodyguard is set to top the Labor Day box office weekend, but not without an unfortunate caveat. The action comedy, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds, will earn its third straight weekend at the top while also leading the pack for what Varietyestimates is the worst Labor Day weekend at the box office in nearly 20 years.

As of Sunday's tally, Hitman's Bodyguard will close the holiday weekend with just under $13 million at 3,370 locations. Though this gives the film the distinction of being the only movie this summer to stay atop the box office for three weekends in a row, the technicalities behind this victory—including the fact that the holiday weekend saw no major new releases—paints a less-than-flattering picture for the industry at large. For the first time since the Labor Day weekend of 1998, the total box office haul is set to fall below $100 million for the four-day total.

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The rest of this year's Labor Day top five has Annabelle: Creation tracking to land at No. 2 with $8.5 million, Wind River at No. 3 with $7.3 million, Leap at No. 4 with $6.65 million, and Logan Lucky (arguably the best movie in the top five) in fifth with $5.6 million.

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As for the summer movie season in general, 2017 is currently on pace to close out with less than $4 billion in earnings, marking the first time such a billion-dollar tragedy has occurred since 2006.

Anyway, remember that movie with all the anthropomorphic emoji? I blame that.

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