This is an example of why it's best to let the weekend shake out. The tone of the
article reflecting the full weekend vs just Friday on GR:SOV is vastly different.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance plummeted 59 percent to $9 million in its second weekend in theaters. That's a bit worse than the first
Ghost Rider's 56 percent decline at the same point. Through 10 days,
Spirit of Vengeance has earned $38 million, or less than half of
Ghost Rider's $79 million
Frankly the writer, Ray Subers, uses contradicting terms in his own evaluation. Saying "plummeted" and "a bit worse" are vastly different descriptions. Especially when you place the numbers of 56% vs 59% there for all to see.
GR:SOV held quite well in it's second weekend when compared to the first GR's second weekend. Meaning audience retention for the films is almost a wash.
A "plummet" would be if it fell off 65%+ and nearly dropped out of the top 10. With 4 new films opening wide to only lose 2 slots and drop to #6 is a good showing.
The new normal the last decade established was that frontloaded genre films see a 60-65% drop. GR:SOV managed to hold at
just under that.
Note I don't pretend the film is suddenly going to have stellar legs mearly being objective, since apparently hyperbole is at play in it's reporting of the weekend, regarding how it's performed to date.
The first film scored just a bit over it's production budget had a satisfactory enough WW total to garner this sequel. The numbers are still in play, if roughly, for that scenario to possibly happen again. Depends on Sony's true expectations for the film and desire to retain the property in the end though.
