Box Office: ‘Suicide Squad’ can’t keep down a ‘Sausage Party’

Box Office:

(AUGUST 12 – AUGUST 14, 2016 estimates)

1. Suicide Squad (Week 2) – $43,770,000
2. Sausage Party (Opening) – $33,600,000
3. Pete’s Dragon (Opening) – $21,501,000
4. Jason Bourne (Week 3) – $13,620,000
5. Bad Moms (Week 3) – $11,450,000
6. The Secret Life of Pets (Week 6) – $8,840,000
7. Star Trek Beyond (Week 4) – $6,800,000
8. Florence Foster Jenkins (Opening) – $6,580,000
9. Nine Lives (Week 2) – $3,500,000
10. Lights Out (Week 4) – $3,220,000

• Sometimes being top of the box office can still feel like a consolation prize. Suicide Squad managed to stay atop the weekend box office for a second week in a row. This came at a price, however, as the poorly reviewed DC film hemorrhaged 67% of its opening weekend. That drop is only slightly better than the 69% drop ofBatman vs. Superman, but shows the film will have no box office legs as the summer winds down. Still, it’s domestic total stands at $222 million. Yet, $300 million domestic, at this rate, seems a bit out of reach. Still, the film has shown some resilience overseas, culminating in a foreign total of $465 million. The film will easily pass $500 million, but $600 million seems like a tougher bar to clear.
• The true winner of the weekend was Seth Rogen’s R-rated animated film Sausage Party. The raunchy film, which takes a Pixar-esque look at the inner lives of food at a supermarket, nearly doubled tracking predictions to earn $33 million for the weekend. This was also against a $19 million budget, making the film a hugely profitable late summer hit. Three years ago, Seth Rogen took a similar risky concept with This is the End and that film had such strong legs it quintupled its opening weekend to cross the $100 million threshold. While Sausage Partymight not be able to do that well, a final gross between $110 – 120 million doesn’t seem hard at all if it holds well enough. In fact, this gross was right in line with another August raunchy hit,Superbad.
• Disney remade another one of the classics from their vault, to mixed returns. Pete’s Dragongrossed an ok $21 million. With strong reviews and a dearth of family content, the film should pick up steam in the next couple of weeks. Coupled with the modest production budget of $65 million, the film should break even. However, it is not enough to be the runaway hit of the late summer box office. A final total of around $70 million seems doable for the film.
• Jason Bourne was able to save some face in its third weekend. The film dropped 39% to bring its domestic total to $126 million and its global total to $246 million. This puts the film officially ahead of both the original Bourne Identity and the misguided Jeremy Renner chapterThe Bourne Legacy. Still, it is quite a ways away from matching either The Bourne Supremacyor The Bourne Ultimatum. A final gross of $150 million domestic seems doable, as does a crack at $300 million worldwide. That final tally is nothing to scoff at, but shows that Bourne has shown his age a bit.
• The best hold of the weekend went to STX Entertainment’s comedy sleeper hit, Bad Moms. The Mila Kunis comedy dropped a minuscule 18% for an $11 million third weekend gross. It’s an incredible hold showing the comedy’s long shelf life and durability. This brought the film’s domestic gross to $71 million and gives it a fighting chance at crossing the $100 million mark. That’s not bad at all considering the film’s $20 million price tag.
• Close behind it in terms of scant week over week drops was the animated juggernaut The Secret Life of Pets. The film dropped 23% in its remarkable sixth weekend in theaters. This brings its domestic total to $335 million and its worldwide total to $592 million. It seems the film has started to expand into further foreign markets and is showing some robust strength. If it keeps this up, a worldwide total closer to $750 million doesn’t seem out of reach at all.
• Star Trek Beyond saw a glimmer of hope in its fourth weekend in theaters. The film had the lowest drop of its box office life, losing only 32% of its business. This added another $6.8 million to its domestic total of $139 million, still a far cry from the $200 million plus domestic runs of the previous films in the rebooted franchise. A domestic gross of $150 million seems about right. Overseas, the film continued to fall behind its predecessors. Read more….