Indie slasher picture horror 3 is easy to win a weekend of curiosity and carnage at the domestic box office wherever Joker: Folie à Deux is experiencing the worst decline in comic book film history and one of the greatest of all films.

Cineverse and Icon Events’ More terrible “Threequel” is on track to take the No. 1 spot with a release in the $16 million to $17 million range from 1,988 theaters.

The closest movie is The wild robotthat continues to shine for DreamWorks Animation and Universal. Now in its third weekend, the family film is on track to gross another $13.9 million from 3,854 theaters.

Warner Bros.’ Remnants Beetlejuice Beetlejuice continues to flex its theatrical muscles despite now being available at home on premium VOD. The Tim Burton-directed sequel is in third place with an estimated gross of $7.2 million to $7.4 million from 2,408 locations, topping $275 million domestically in its sixth weekend.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice even beats Todd Phillips’ joker sequel, which falls off the cliff in its second run with an estimated $6.6 million to $6.8 million from 4,102 theaters, a historic decline of 82 percent. Until now, The miracles held the record among comic book films for the worst second weekend decline at 78 percent.

While horror 3 While it cuts and burns in its debut, a number of other new national opening films – including high-profile awards contenders – are struggling to find an audience.

Briarcliff’s Donald Trump film The apprentice — which Trump tried to prevent from ever hitting theaters — is planning a debut in the $1.5 million range at 1,740 locations. That means a close race with holdover Don’t speak evil for 10th place (competing studios show the latter winning). Pre-release tracking showed the picture’s opening price to be in the $3 million range.

The apprenticewhich had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and later screened at the Telluride Film Festival, does much of its business in liberal enclaves in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC and Chicago. It boasts of decent reviews despite audiences giving it a B CinemaScore.

Briarcliff, which acquired US rights to the film at the last minute, had only five weeks to sell the film The apprenticewhich launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for marketing costs. Briarcliff boss Tom Ortenberg, who was behind the best picture winner Headlightbelieves The apprentice will steadily grow and that the opening gross doesn’t seal the film’s fate.

Before the pandemic, indie distributors generally opened their awards contenders in New York and Los Angeles to build word of mouth, rather than launching nationally and risking quickly losing theaters if a film fails to attract attention. Platform releases have become rarer.

Focus Features also decided to release its critically acclaimed Oscar nominee nationwide piece by piecean animated bibliographic documentary about Pharrell Williams. The film, which earned an A CinemaScore, opens in 1,865 theaters this weekend and is expected to take sixth place with $3.5 million. That’s not bad for a documentary.

piece by piececreated in collaboration with LEGO, is in a close race with another awards contender, Jason Reitman’s narrative film Saturday eveninga love letter to Lorne Michaels’ Saturday Night Live. The film also screened at the Telluride, which is considered the starting point for the start of an Oscar campaign.

From Sony, Saturday evening is spreading after playing its first two weekends in select cities like LA and New York. The generally well-reviewed film is expected to post a modest weekend gross of $3.5 million from 2,309 theaters after receiving a CinemaScore of B+.

Sony believes similarly to Briarcliff Saturday evening will find its way.

After five consecutive weekends of gains, box office revenue this weekend is expected to be down 45 percent compared to the same period last year. A key factor is the failure of Joker: Folie à Deuxbut the overall weak market doesn’t help.

The numbers will be updated on Sunday morning.