As Halloween approaches, it's no wonder that audiences are looking for a good scare. Well, "good" is a bit subjective in this case, as the current number one movie in America is Jigsaw, the eighth chapter in Lionsgate's lucrative and truly lousy horror franchise. With Thursday previews added in, the latest Saw movie has brought in an estimated $7.1 million, putting it far ahead of all other comers at the box office. There is no discussion: Jigsaw will remain on top for the rest of the weekend.

thank-you-for-your-service-image-miles-teller
Image via Universal Pictures/DreamWorks

It's closest competition is Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, which came in with $2.6 million by the end of yesterday after leading a mediocre box office weekend last week. Tyler Perry's latest brought in a little over $21 million by the end of last Sunday and Jigsaw is looking to make just about the same, so there's not much to get excited about here. Geostorm's third place showing with $1.5 million certainly doesn't make that any easier to swallow, nor does Happy Death Day's fourth place showing with approximately $29,000 less than the Gerard Butler vehicle.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing here is the weak opening of Thank You for Your Service, an imperfect but fascinating and well-acted portrait of young soldiers in combat, at home and abroad. Led by a moving performance from Miles Teller,  the movie came in with only $16,000 less than its closest competitor, which doesn't speak well for its longterm appeal in theaters. It's fairing much better than George Clooney's ludicrous Suburbicon, despite the dark comedy sporting a cast that includes Matt Damon and Julianne Moore. And to be fair, war films never do well unless they can be construed as celebrating the military, and Thank You for Your Service's unsparing depiction of how the military, government, and the populace often turn their back on or even spite veterans is not easy to square in those terms. Still, one would have hoped (perhaps without reason) that it would have done better than the eighth iteration of a bad horror movie made with exactly no interest or passion for its genre.

Here's your top five for Friday:

Title

Friday Domestic BO

Total Domestic BO

1. ‘Jigsaw’

$7,166,000

$7,166,000

2. ‘Boo 2! A Madea Halloween’

$2,630,000

$28,151,643

3. ‘Geostorm’

$1,550,000

$19,428,368

4. ‘Happy Death Day’

$1,521,000

$44,852,640

5. ‘Thank You for Your Service’

$1,505,000

$1,505,000

suburbicon-image-2
Image via Paramount Pictures
happy-death-day-jessica-rothe
Image via Blumhouse / Universal Pictures
geostorm-movie-image
Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Lionsgate