But after the fifth place opening of “Ben-Hur”, the second coming of the sword-and-sandal movie appears to be attracting dwindling flocks of moviegoers. Granted, none of the three newcomers broke even $15 million this weekend, so that didn’t come as much of a surprise. “No major movie wants to open wide outside the top five”, says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore.
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“Ben-Hur”, meanwhile, bombed on its debut.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start with the still reigning champ at the box office, Suicide Squad. “War Dogs” was directed by Todd Phillips, he also wrote the screenplay along with Stephen Chin. According to the Los Angeles Times, in its opening weekend, Ben-Hur was only able to pull in approximately $11.4 million in both Canada and the US, while internationally it was able to pull in just $10.7 million.
The Warner Bros.’ action film “Suicide Squad” topped the North America box office for the third consecutive weekend, while the “Sausage Party” remained as the runner-up and the debuted “War Dogs” took the third place. The film grossed $ 65 million in revenue for a budget of 19 million.
We’ll see if any of them can make hay off of Suicide Squad’s drop.
To compound matters, the saga and its remake of the famed chariot scene cost about $100 million to produce.
Once again the Warner Bros. The Secret Life of Pets passed $345 million domestically through 45 days at the box office.
Washington Post: “This new Ben-Hur could just as easily have been called “Been There, Done That”.
Still, fueled by “Suicide Squad” and “Sausage Party”, the box office was up more than 22 percent over the same weekend past year, according to comScore.
“Ben-Hur” didn’t have a prayer at the box office.
“Three movies premiered next: “War Dogs” with $14.3 million, “Kubo And the Two Strings” at $12.6 million”, and the religious remake of “Ben-Hur” at $11.4 million. By comparison to other animated movies its $60 million production cost is nearly modest, but with just $12 million on opening weekend Kubo has a tough road to recover.
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Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s R-rated animated comedy Sausage Party lands in second place with $15.3 million (GBP11.7 million), and Miles Teller and Jonah Hill’s new film War Dogs, in which they portray unlikely global arms dealers, opens in third with $14.3 million (GBP10.9 million).
