The total is a strong performance for a horror (budgeted at just $9.9 million) and a final reminder that the true winners this summer movie season were the titles that had some originality to it.
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Its genre arm Screen Gems is now riding high with the horror “Don’t Breathe”, which is number one at the domestic box office for the second-straight week, taking in an estimated $15.5 million, according to Exhibitor Relations. Disney’s “The Light Between Oceans” was heading for a modest sixth-place finish with $6.1 million at 1,500 sites and Fox’s sci-fi thriller “Morgan” was almost invisible with $2.4 million at 2,020, leaving it in 18th place.
Monday will mark the end of Hollywood’s summer. The second weekend of “War Room” won past year with $13.4 million; the fifth weekend of “Guardians of the Galaxy” led in 2014 with $22.9 million; and the third weekend of “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” was victorious in 2013 with $20.2 million.
Warner Bros.’ fifth weekend of “Suicide Squad” should finish ahead of the newcomers with as much as $10 million for the four days, enough to lift the supervillain tentpole near the $300 million milestone domestically. I think it would be a good experiment to release a big time blockbuster the first weekend in September and basically own the weekend box office the entire month. It made just $1.3 million while expanding to 2,011 theaters, marking the latest in a string of disappointments for the Weinstein Co.
The DreamWorks drama The Light Between the Oceans, starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, debuted with a modest $5m a day after it premiered at the Venice film festival. The animated-film has now grossed $64.22M in four-weeks, not the best that Disney has seen but still rather successful. If there’s any solace, the Fox movie cost $6 million to produce. The story follows a group of scientists who create Morgan (Taylor-Joy), a being with superhuman qualities. Scott is the son of Ridley Scott and has been a second-unit director on his father’s “The Martian” and “Exodus: Gods and Kings”. The ensemble cast includes Kate Mara, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Paul Giamatti. The Fede Alvarez movie’s three-day is on course for $11M, -58% from its opening weekend.
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Rounding out the top five was Sony’s Sausage Party, which grossed $5.3 million through Sunday and is projected to earn $6.7 million over the four-day holiday, which would put its domestic total at $89.8 million by Monday. The modern-day Western earned $4.5 million for the three days as it moved into 1,030 theaters. Over the weekend it should continue to play on the fringes of the top ten, bringing in around $3.4 million for the three-day and $4.3 million for the four day weekend.
