Burnt, Our Brand is Crisis, among recent line-up of box office flops

Ann Dowd as Nell, Sandra Bullock as Jane and Reynaldo Pacheco as Eddie in satirical comedy Our Brand Is Crisis, one of a number of films to flop at the box office.

Sandra Bullock's political satire Our Brand Is Crisis and chef drama Burnt starring Bradley Cooper added to a pile of films that failed to please.

Four movies were unsuccessful in drawing moviegoers in the US last week and Hollywood lost again over Halloween weekend as four new films went largely ignored in favor of trick-or-treating.

Scandal drama Truth, with Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford and the horror comedy Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse added to a plague of empty theaters.

That enabled the top three films from the last several weeks - The Martian, Goosebumps and Bridge of Spies - to remain on top.

With an estimated $16.2 million in its fifth weekend, Ridley Scott's 3D space adventure The Martian hauled in NZD $266 million in the U.S.A, and led the box office four times - a dominating stretch which signalled trouble for other releases courting adult moviegoers.

The weekend was never meant to be a big one at theaters with Halloween falling on a Saturday and the latest James Bond film, Spectre awaiting release this week.

But the box office numbers in North America were still very low, especially for two of Hollywood's top actors.

The Weinstein Co.'s Burnt, starring Cooper as a former top chef in Paris, took in NZD $7 million despite playing on more than 3000 screens.

Bradley Cooper's film Burnt did not rate well with audiences in the US.

Our Brand Is Crisis, David Gordon Green's true tale of political strategists in Bolivia, managed a scant NZD $5 million on 2,202 screens for Warner Bros.

Sony Pictures Classics Truth, which recounts CBS' reporting on President George W. Bush's military service didn't crack NZD $1.4 million.

Paramount Pictures' Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypsegrossed just $NZD 2.6 million on 1,509 screens.

The four flops added to five from last week, when Steve Jobs, Jem and the Holograms, Rock the Kasbah, The Last Witch Hunter and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension all of which failed to crack NZD$16 million.

"Next week, the whole complexion of this will change," senior media analyst for box office data firm Rentrak Paul Dergarabedian said.

"But I think this is a really good lesson learned for Hollywood that if you have too much product - particularly aimed at older audiences - you're going to fragment the audience to the point where a lot of movies are going to become casualties of that crowded marketplace."

The two weeks of debuts have also been populated mainly by poorly reviewed movies with the exception of the acclaimed but much criticized Steve Jobs.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak.

1. The Martian, NZD $16.8 million

2. Goosebumps, NZD $15.6 million

3. Bridge of Spies, $11.9 million

4. Hotel Transylvania 2, $8.5 million

5. Burnt, $7.3 million

6. The Last Witch Hunter, $7 million

7. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, $5.1 million

8. Our Brand Is Crisis, $5 million.

9. Crimson Peak, $4.5 million

10. Steve Jobs, $3.8 million.

- AP