We’ve got a bona fide horror hit on our hands.Don’t Breatheeasily won the weekend box office with a stellar $26.1 million debut, which is far above tracking numbers that had the film opening in the range of $11 million or so. The original home invasion horror pic opened even higher than directorFede Alvarez’s previous film, the 2013Evil Deadremake, which scored $25.7 million in its opening frame. Screen Gems is no doubt happy as the pic was made on a slim budget of just $10 million, and coupled with positive reviews, this certainly gets things off to a great start.
Don’t Breathemarks the latest horror hit of 2016, as the low-budgetLights Outsimilarly outpaced expectations with a $21.6 million weekend. That pic grossed $111.3 million worldwide against a budget of just $4.9 million, making for a massive hit for Warner Bros.’ New Line label. Similarly, New Line’sThe Conjuring 2opened well back in June and has amassed $319.4 million worldwide, albeit against a higher budget of $40 million, whileThe Purge: Election Yearamassed $105.6 million worldwide. In short, the horror genre is doing just fine.
But asDon’t Breathescored the top spot on the box office charts,Suicide Squadwas finally knocked down to #2. The DC film scored $12.1 million over the weekend, marking an end to its three-week reign atop the box office—although it fared better thanBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which fell out of the top spot after just two weeks. DirectorDavid Ayer’s villain-centric pic has now grossed $282.9 million domestically for a worldwide total of $635 million, which is admittedly quite solid given that many doubted whether it could go any higher than $600 million. The film is semi-near the final $330.3 million domestic total that endedBatman v Superman’s run, butZack Snyder’s film ratcheted up $542.3 million internationally whileSuicide Squadhas only amassed $353 million on that front thus far.
War Dogssuffered a pretty steep drop in its third week, falling to seventh place with just $27.7 million in total domestic gross at the moment, while Sony’sSausage Partycontinues to bring in the dough as it’s now scored $80 million domestic—more than Disney’s pricey sequelAlice Through the Looking Glass. And speaking of success stories, STX Entertainment’s comedyBad Momshas been the quiet hit of the summer, as the film has now grossed $95.4 million domestic with a worldwide cume of $116 million.
In terms of new releases, theJason Stathamaction sequelMechanic: Resurrectiondebuted to just $7.5 million, which is below the $11.4 million opening ofThe Mechanicin 2011. That said, Lionsgate Premiere is banking onResurrectionfaring well on the home entertainment market, so it’s possible VOD numbers justify the production overall. The boxing dramaHands of Stone, however, opened to just $1.7 million in 810 theaters, while the surprisingly good Obama love storySouthside with Youscored $3 million from 813 theaters.
The indie WesternHell or High Watercontinues to perform swimmingly as it slowly expands to more theaters across the country, as it scored $3.7 million—higher thanHands of StoneandSouthside with You—from 909 theaters. TheJeff Bridges-fronted pic has been basking in stellar reviews, and it appears that word of mouth has indeed been strong. This brings its cumulative total to date to $8.5 million, and the film will continue to expand next weekend as it’s seeing little week-to-week drop in the theaters in which it’s already playing.
On a broader scale,The Jungle Book’s domestic gross has now surpassedDeadpoolwith $363.3 million, which means that Disney now dominates the top 3 domestic grossers of 2016 withFinding Doryat $479.1 million andCaptain America: Civil Warat $407.7 million. Worldwide, Disney dominates the topfourspots withCivil Warat $1.1 billion,Zootopiaat $1 billion,Jungle Bookat $959.6 million, andFinding Doryat $928.6 million. All hail the Mouse House.
Check out the full Top 10 chart of weekend estimates below.
Don’t Breathe
$26,115,000
Suicide Squad
$12,110,000
$282,882,627
Kubo and the Two Strings
$7,909,000
$24,920,378
Sausage Party
$7,665,000
$80,008,510
Mechanic: Resurrection
$7,500,000
Pete’s Dragon
$7,282,000
$54,715,378
$7,255,000
$27,757,687
$5,760,000
$95,453,235
Jason Bourne
$5,230,000
$149,257,235
$4,530,000
$19,552,877
