Weekend Wrap-Up: Sully Saves the Box Office with $35.03 million
September 13, 2016
Four films opened wide or semi-wide over the weekend, but only one of them, Sully, did well at the box office. It earned more than double its nearest competition, When the Bough Breaks, at $35.03 million to $14.20 million. The other two new releases bombed. Overall, the box office was flat, up 1.1% from last weekend to $101 million. This was also flat when compared to last year, down just 1.7%. Since this weekend was so close to last weekend, it should come as no surprise that the year-over-year comparison hardly moved. This time last week, 2016 was ahead of 2016 by just over 6.7%, while this week its lead is just under 6.8% at $8.10 billion to $7.58 billion.
Sully topped even the high end of expectations with $35.03 million over the weekend. This is the biggest opening for a live-action Tom Hanks movie since The Da Vinci Code and the technically the best in Clint Eastwood’s career. Both men have historically made movies with long legs, while the film’s reviews will help in that regard. Because of this, hitting $100 million domestically seems likely. The film did cost $60 million to make, so it will still need help internationally and on the home market, but this is a great start.
When the Bough Breaks missed expectations and struggled compared to the recent slate of African-American thrillers. However, opening with $14.20 million on a $10 million budget isn’t a bad result. On the other hand, earning zero positive reviews is bad and won’t help the film’s legs. Add in a genre that is historically front-loaded and this film will fade from theaters quickly.
Don’t Breathe earned $8.25 million over the weekend, pushing its running tally to $66.87 million after three weeks of release. Results like this should teach studios that the smart money is on lower-budget horror films rather than $200 million Avengers-wannabees.
Speaking of which, Suicide Squad was next with $5.72 million over the weekend and $307.48 million after more than a month of release. The film will break even, but the studio could have made more than a dozen films like Don’t Breathe for the same price as this one.
The Wild Life just managed to grab a spot in the top five topping Kubo and the Two Strings $3.44 million to $3.40 million. The Wild Life missed the Mendoza Line by a rather large margin and, combined with its abysmal reviews, this will result in really short legs. More than half of theaters owners might drop the movie as soon as they are contractually able to.
Finally, we get to The Disappointments Room, an aptly named movie. Actually, calling a film that opened with just $1.40 million in 1,554 theaters merely a “disappointment” is being kind. The film is still sitting at zero positive reviews, so there’s no hope word-of-mouth will save this dud.
- Sully Comparisons
- When the Bough Breaks Comparisons
- The Wild Life Comparisons
- The Disappointments Room Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, The Disappointments Room, Suicide Squad, When the Bough Breaks, Kubo and the Two Strings, Don’t Breathe, Sully, Robinson Crusoe, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood