You can almost imagine Matthew McConaughey's Walter (AKA The Man In Black) using the reviews of The Dark Tower to bring the actual tower down, but the film didn't fare well with those in Stateside audiences either. At a quiet weekend for the American box office, the movie only mustered $19.5 million for a lacklustre start.
Given its $60 million budget, all involved will have to hope that international takings help, lest this hoped-for franchise be seen as stumbling from the start. We'll see if the planned TV series goes ahead as quickly given this less than impressive launch for the adaptation of Stephen King's sprawling story.
Dunkirk was pushed into second place and earned $17.6 million, pushing past $133 million at the domestic box office. The Emoji Movie was third on $12.3 million, while Girls Trip, which has been a success so far, fell one place to fourth with $11.4 million. The comedy has so far made $85 million in the States (and more than $90 million globally) from a $19 million production budget.
The one other pure new arrival in the charts this week was the Halle Berry child-in-peril thriller Kidnap, which launched with $10.2 million in fifth.
Sixth place went to Spider-Man: Homecoming, falling a place and earning $8.8 million. Atomic Blonde fell to seventh, making $8.2 million.
Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit has somewhat underperformed so far, adding more than 2,987 screens but only entering the charts at eighth and adding $7.2 million. War For The Planet Of The Apes made $6 million in ninth, and Despicable Me 3 earned $5.2 million in 10th.