Weekend Box Office: Newcomers Heart of the Beast, Primetime and Forgotten Island Fill Top 5

It was a weekend of tight margins and fresh faces. While the Avengers: Endgame Encore re-release grabbed the headlines with its $26 million number-one finish, the real story of the September 25-27 frame may be how three brand-new releases packed into the top five right behind it, according to box office reporting.

The top ten shook out as follows: 1) Avengers: Endgame Encore at $26 million, 2) Resident Evil at $23.3 million in its second weekend (down 61 percent), 3) Heart of the Beast at $20 million, 4) Primetime at $19.2 million, 5) Forgotten Island at $12.8 million, followed by Practical Magic 2 ($5.6 million), Spider-Man: Brand New Day ($4.1 million), The Odyssey ($3.7 million), Coyote vs. Acme ($1.9 million), and Daniel and the Fiery Furnace ($1.5 million).

Only $6.8 million separated first place from fourth — a clear winner, but no runaway gap. This was a crowded, competitive weekend at the multiplex.

Heart of the Beast: Pitt vs. the Wild

Paramount's survival thriller Heart of the Beast opened to $20 million for third place, per box office reporting. The film stars Brad Pitt as a Special Forces officer stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with his combat dog, a man-against-nature premise built for the big screen.

The wilderness survival genre has always been a reliable theatrical draw when anchored by a genuine movie star, and Pitt remains one of the few actors who can open a film on name alone. A $20 million debut puts the film in solid position, especially with premium-format screens hungry for spectacle-driven fare.

Primetime and Forgotten Island Round Out the New Blood

Right on its heels, A24's Primetime debuted to $19.2 million. The true-crime, television-inspired drama centers on investigative journalist Chris Hansen, and it represents A24 stretching into more mainstream territory while keeping its signature edge. A near-$20 million opening is a strong statement for the studio.

DreamWorks Animation's Forgotten Island, a family fantasy, opened to $12.8 million in fifth place. Family films tend to leg out well beyond opening weekend, and with school-year weekends ahead, the animated newcomer has room to grow.

Storms Took a Toll

The weekend's numbers came with an asterisk: storms in the Northeast affected turnout. New York saw massive flooding, and as box office watchers noted, people simply were not going to theaters in the affected areas. The tight cluster at the top might have been even tighter — or shaken out differently — under clearer skies.

One notable changing of the guard: this was the first top five since mid-July without Spider-Man: Brand New Day or The Odyssey in the top five. Both films are still hanging on in the lower reaches of the top ten, but the September newcomers have officially taken over the marquee.