R-rated animated comedy “Sausage Party” impressively claimed the top spot at the Friday US box office, but “Suicide Squad” should move ahead as the weekend progresses.
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“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, which was also panned by critics, saw a 69% decline in its second weekend after a $166 million opening. This means it could match the 81% drop that Batman V Superman had in March. Internationally, the comic book adaptation earned $58.7 million this weekend for a total of $242.5 million overseas. Comps are hard since there haven’t been a slew of R-rated animated comedies; in 1999, South Park – Bigger, Longer and Uncut debuted to $11.3 million, and $19.3 when adjusting for ticket price inflation.
Sony, which released the movie, was bullish about their latest collaboration with Rogen and producing partner Evan Goldberg (its previous Rogen/Goldberg release was the now infamous “The Interview”, which led to the Sony hacks).
“It shows that if you are really original and take risks, it can pay off really well in today’s marketplace”.
The story follows one courageous sausage living in a grocery store who strives to discover the truth about his existence and takes his fellow hot dogs on a quest to do just that.
The trio of newcomers, meanwhile, have received favorable critiques and now all sit above 80% on Rotten Tomatoes: “Sausage Party” (82%); “Pete’s Dragon” (86%); “Florence Foster Jenkins” (88%). But the appetite for the update was subdued overall. Made for $175 million, the film has now earned $465.4 million worldwide. The downer: That’s a steep 68 percent drop from the film’s box office last weekend, when it opened.
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Then there was the Disney release “Pete’s Dragon”, which gives a completely different story to the movie of a young boy and his best friend that’s a dragon, which originally came out in 1977. Florence Foster Jenkins is now playing in 1,528 theatres and is expected to hit the $6 million dollar mark. It earned an A- CinemaScore from audiences.
