Made on a budget just shy of $10 million, Screen Gems is remaining very conservative with their expectations, plotting an opening around $11-12 million, but reviews, word of mouth and comparing the film’s daily performance on IMDb against competitive titles suggests a much higher opening.
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“Don’t Breathe” is about a group of Detroit teens who chose the wrong house to rob – that of a blind, vengeful veteran.
Don’t Breathe reunited actress Jane Levy and director Fede Alvarez, who worked together on 2013’s Evil Dead. Moviegoers gave the picture an overall B-plus CinemaScore (A-minus from the under 35 crowd) while 87 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics rated the film positively. “The Shallows, ‘ “Sausage Party” and now ‘Don’t Breathe” were all incredibly profitable because they were made for modest budgets and did incredibly well at the box office”, Greenstein said.
“These are the films of bean counters’ dreams”, Paul Dergarabedian of box office trackers ComScore told Reuters news agency. “[They] can nearly always be counted on to make money”. More to the point, Statham is a major draw in home video and his films often do 150% to 200% of their domestic box office on home video. This weekend, the comic book film Suicide Squad grossed US$12.1 million (NZ$16.7 mill), bringing its U.S. total to $282.9 million (NZ$390.8 mill). The animated film, Kubo and the Two Strings, brought in $7.9 million, and Seth Rogen’s adult animated comedy, Sausage Party brought in $7.6 million. The $175 million film, with an ensemble cast that features Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, and Viola Davis, has grossed $635 million worldwide.
Rounding out the top five was the latest installment in “The Mechanic” franchise, “Mechanic: Resurrection” with $7.5 million, which surprised me a bit.
The weekend figure for Don’t Breathe came in at an excellent $26.1 million, awesome for this late into August, and proof again that any film can open successfully at any time – as long as all the elements are in the right place. The two companies partnered on Mr. Holmes previous year, which they opened in mid-July in just 361 theaters and grossed $2.4 million in the first three days of release.
Outside the top 10, Roadside Attractions’ Sundance hit Southside with You, the dramatic retelling of Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date, grossed a lukewarm $3 million on 813 screens, averaging $3,764 per-screen. Where available, the latest worldwide numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included.
Meanwhile, Western heist thriller Hell or High Water outgrossed both Southside and Hands of Stone to take in an estimated $3.7 million from 909 theaters. Blockbuster sequels – like Indepedence Day: Resurgence, Star Trek: Beyond, Jason Bourne and Alice Through the Looking Glass – have largely fallen flat during this year’s spring/summer months. Given how intriguing it looks, there’s no reason to think Don’t Breathe won’t reach its expected numbers this weekend as well.
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Ben-Hur followed up its disastrous opening weekend with a heavy second-weekend drop, down 60% to finish at #10 with $4.5 million. Oh – and Mechanic: Resurrection also debuted. The boxing drama pulled in an estimated $1.7 million from a mid-level release of about 800 theaters, coming in well below analyst projections of less than $6 million.
