'Kingsman 2' Wins Second Weekend At Box-Office By A Nose

VARIETY: Fox’s “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” has repeated as the official winner of the North American weekend box office by barely prevailing over Tom Cruise’s “American Made” and horror hit “It.”

Final weekend numbers released on Monday evening from comScore showed the second weekend of the “Kingsman” sequel taking in $16.93 million for the Friday-Sunday frame. New Line’s “It” tallied $16.9 million in its fourth weekend, topping “American Made’s” $16.8 million opening weekend gross.

Sunday morning estimates had shown “It” with $17.3 million, compared to $17 million each for “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” and “American Made.” It was one of the closest box office races in memory.

Overall business was moderate, followed three weekends of strong performance spurred by “It.” The final results for Sony’s opening of “Flatliners” did not change from an unimpressive $6.7 million.

Spy comedy “Kingsman: the Golden Circle” has taken in $66.6 million domestically and another $126 million overseas. “It” has topped $290 million in the U.S. with $262 million internationally for a worldwide total of $552.8 million.

“American Made,” starring Cruise as an airline pilot-turned-CIA operative, has grossed $64.7 million outside the United States for a global total of $81.5 million. It’s one of the lowest performances for Cruise in recent years.

Warner Bros.’ launch of “Blade Runner 2049” is expected to dominate the domestic box office this weekend.

The box office from Friday and Saturday made September the first month to break the $700 million mark with $708.9 million — 19.2% higher than last year and 14.7% higher than the previous record month of September in 2015, according to comScore. It was also the first September to surpass a summer month (May through August) in terms of total revenue beating August, 2017’s $668.5 million haul.