Sullenberger, who successfully guided US Airways Flight 1549 to a safe emergency water landing on the Hudson River in 2009 after both its engines had been disabled by a flock of Canada geese – saving all of the flight’s 155 crew and passengers, was a big part of the film’s promotional campaign, even parodying Hanks’ film characters in a skit on USA late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week (ends09Sep16).
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Sony/Screen Gems’ surrogate thriller When the Bough Breaks opened in 2nd place with $15-M from 2,246 theaters. (But it cost just $10 million to produce.) Results were worse for other new movies.
The figures certainly seem to bear this out, as according to distributers Warner Bros an estimated 80 per cent of those who turned out this weekend were over the age of 35. Similar to films directed by Mr. Eastwood, Mr. Hanks’ dramas do not generally sport huge openings, but garner strong legs. Eastwood shot “Sully” entirely with Imax cameras, a first for a major Hollywood film. On top of that, Sully’s domestic IMAX run brought in $4 million. Rory Bruer, Sony’s president of worldwide distribution, echoed that sentiment, stressing that “The Perfect Guy’s” box office was “way beyond anyone’s expectations”.
Elsewhere, Suicide Squad managed to snatch fourth place with an estimated $5.7 million.
After a couple of weeks at the top Dont Breathe falls to number 3 this week with $8.2 million over the weekend, this brings the films United States gross to $66.8 million. “Sully”, $35.5 million ($9.5 million international). 2.
The superhero film, which has the twist of making villains the main characters, has now made more than $307 million in North America alone.
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Don’t Breathe stayed in the top five this week, coming in at No. 3 for the weekend with $8.2 million. But below it, surprise entry The Wild Life debuted with an estimated $3.4 million. Though faring better in pure numbers, Kubo and the Two Strings and its $3.2 million is still struggling, and looking to be a financial bomb, though not a critical one. Hell or High Water remains the highest-grossing limited release of the year so far, raking in an additional $2.6 million from weekend ticket sales. Finally, though sliding five places to tenth, Sausage Party is still a big victor, with an estimated $2.3 million adding to $93.2 million in domestic earnings.
