It’s not a surprise to hear that a new Denzel Washington action thriller has topped the box office, with The Equalizer 3 doing what the overwhelming majority of the actor’s trigger-happy starring vehicles do by running away with it at the top of the charts.
Thanks to a $42 million Labor Day holiday debut – as well as a stellar $34 million haul from Friday to Sunday – the two-time Oscar-winning icon has scored his eighth number one debut in the last two decades, with The Equalizer 3 landing the second highest-grossing holiday premiere after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Not only that, but the franchise itself has also secured a reputation as the single most consistent in the history of cinema, in relation to the numbers it’s maintained across all three of its first weekends. The opening chapter nabbed $34.1 million, the sequel netted $36 million, and the third and final installment took home $34.5 million.
As a result, The Numbers has crunched the… you get it… to discover that as a whole, The Equalizer‘s first-weekend earnings have deviated by only 2.3 percent across its three entries to date, which in turn moves it ahead of the Ocean’s saga to become the top dog.
Obviously, it’s not an earth-shattering revelation to reveal Denzel Washington as one of the most enduringly popular draws of the modern age, but not many folks would have pegged The Equalizer as the most consistent IP there’s been in all of Hollywood’s long and illustrious history.
