The franchise film opened last weekend with $22.9 million and finished third this weekend with an estimated $9.6 million. Hanks did more damage to Cruise this weekend than vice versa, but still, "Inferno" could have done better if there had been greater distance between it and "Jack Reacher."

2. Grown-Ups
Cruise wasn't Hanks's only rival for the adult-thriller audience this weekend. Ben Affleck's "The Accountant" and Emily Blunt's "The Girl on the Train" were both still in the top six. Yes, Fall is supposed to be the time that grown-ups go back to the movies while kids are busy at school, but c'mon, Mom and Dad aren't going to pay to see four similar thrillers. So the one that's last out of the gate is at a disadvantage.

3. Baseball
This year's historic World Series match-up is one of the highest-rated Fall Classics in recent years. With games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, people are staying home in droves to watch baseball. Indeed, with just an estimated $85.6 million in total sales, this is the lowest grossing box office weekend of 2016 to date. Apparently, everyone had something better to do than go to the movies.

4. Halloween
October is just not a good time for the Robert Langdon franchise. The first two movies both opened in mid-May, a more-ideal-time for a globetrotting action thriller. In October, "Inferno" is competing against not just the World Series and other grown-up movies, but also against Halloween.

Aside from this (now-dead) franchise, he hasn't had a $100-million-grossing domestic release since 2001's "A Beautiful Mind" or an opening weekend worth more than $19 million since 2000's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Even the Langdon movies, however, have trended downward.

The first one, "The Da Vinci Code," opened in 2006 with $77 million on the way toward a $218 million total in the U.S. In 2009, "Angels & Demons" debuted with $46 million toward a $133 million domestic total. "Inferno" will be lucky to earn over its lifetime as much "Angels" grossed in its first few days.

Don't weep too much for Hanks, Howard and the "Inferno" team. In the two weeks before it debuted to the sound of crickets here, "Inferno" opened in markets around the world and made an estimated $132.7 million, including a $13.3 million debut in China this weekend. "Inferno" cost just $75 million to make (about half what "Angels & Demons" cost seven years ago) and probably a similar amount to market, so if Sony has to share about half the gross with theater owners, "Inferno" has to gross only $300 million globally to make a profit. The movie's slow start in America makes that kind of a windfall less likely.

Still, for all the movie had going against it, making a Tom Hanks threequel in a $1.3 billion franchise for just $75 million is pretty much a no-brainer to studio accountants, no matter how the movie fares in the United States. Hanks may be America's Dad, but he didn't make this movie for his kids.