Weekend Box Office: 'It Chapter Two' Stays At Number One, 'Hustlers' Hustle Up A Win, 'The Goldfinch' Fails To Fly

Another weekend has ended, which means two things: one, we all have to return to the drudgery of work. And two, the weekend box office results are in. While there were a few new contenders at the multiplex, Pennywise and the Losers' Club held fast with It Chapter Two staying at number one. But the highly-acclaimed Hustlers had a great weekend, too, exceeding expectations. The same can't be said for the prestige drama The Goldfinch, which could not take flight in the wake of scathing TIFF reviews.

Reaction to It Chapter Two has been a bit mixed (I liked it, FYI), but audiences can't seem to get enough of Pennywise. According to Box Office Mojo, the Stephen King-inspired sequel stayed at the top of the box office for the second week in a row, scaring up $40.7 million. That brings the global total to $323.3 million and means that the It franchise as a whole has grossed over $1.02 billion worldwide. Pretty soon they'll have to change his name from Pennywise to Dollarwise, am I right, folks? Yes, I am.

Elsewhere in movieland, Hustlers, Lorene Scafaria's crowd-pleaser about strippers who rip off Wall Street goons, opened at $33.2 million. That makes it the biggest film in the history of STX Films, and there's a bit of tragic irony here. You see, at one point, Hustlers was going to be distributed by Annapurna, the motion picture company that releases genuinely good movies that fail to find an audience. Annapurna offloaded Hustlers to STX, and lo and behold, it ends up being a smash hit for them. One can't help but wonder how the film could've given Annapurna a much-needed win if they had held onto it. In any case, Hustlers is a hit, and also the biggest live-action opening ever for star Jennifer Lopez. Hustlers premiered at TIFF last week, where it was met with high praise – which likely helped draw in even more audience members.

The opposite happened for The Goldfinch. The film, adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, was clearly meant to be sold as a big prestige pic, with a cast that includes Ansel Elgort, Finn Wolfhard, Sarah Paulson, Luke Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, and Nicole Kidman. But when The Goldfinch arrived at TIFF it was met with almost universal derision. The result: a paltry $2.6 million opening weekend on a$45 million budget, which, according to Business Insider, is the "worst opening weekend of the year so far for a movie premiering in over 2,500 theaters and the sixth-worst opening of all time for a movie opening in that many theaters."

The upcoming weekend sees the release of the Downton Abbey movie, which is likely to be big. For those not inclined to see films about people drinking tea, there's also Rambo: Last Blood. Ad Astra also goes wide. You can probably guess which of these three is likely to come out on top.

The top 10 movies at the box office are below.

1. It Chapter Two

2. Hustlers

3. Angel Has Fallen

4. Good Boys

5. The Lion King

6. Hobbs and Shaw

7. Overcomer

8. The Goldfinch

9. The Peanut Butter Falcon

10. Dora and the Lost City of Gold