‘The Equalizer 3’ Scores Second-Highest Labor Day Numbers

The Denzel Washington-driven “The Equalizer 3” has done so well at the box office over the Labor Day weekend that it has earned the second-highest total taken in for the four-day holiday according to Variety.

The estimated total for the latest sequel to “The Equalizer” is $43.2 million. That number surpasses the previous second-place highest total for the holiday weekend, Rob Zombie’s 2007 “Halloween” remake. That movie took in a total of $30 million. Yet, it is still less than half of the top-grossing movie for a Labor Day weekend, Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” That motion picture brought in $94.6 million two years ago in 2021.

Surprisingly, the three-day total nearly matches both previous movies in the trilogy. “The Equalizer 3” brought in a three-day total domestic figure of $34.5 million which is nearly the same as the three-day totals of the first two movies in the series. The original movie, which premiered in 2015, took in $34 million while the sequel, released in 2018 pulled in $36 million.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that due to the success of “The Equalizer 3” and the movies that were recently released this season, the total box office total for the summer of 2023 surpassed $4 billion. This marks the first time in the post-pandemic era that the industry was able to do so.

The $4 billion number took place on Friday. It is predicted that the final number for the 2023 summer will be $4.087 billion. This represents a 19 percent increase over the numbers of 2022, yet is still below the 2019 summer numbers by 6 percent.

“For the industry, after a three-year hiatus, to generate enough summer box office heat to again reach the $4B benchmark for the season is a remarkable achievement made even more interesting by the unexpected and often confounding path that led to this key milestone,” says Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “From Barbenheimer to Sound of Freedom and a host of other high-profile hits and somewhat inexplicable misses, the unpredictable nature of this all-important 18-week corridor was on full display. Equalizer 3 is taking us out on a high note!”

Now, the audience awaits to see if there will be a follow-up to “The Equalizer 3.”