The Paramount Pictures release, which cost about $100 million to make, debuted with just $11.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Sadly, the remake looks to be more of a flop than anything else and could even be considered one of the biggest flops of the summer, with a poor opening weekend both domestically and internationally, as well as very little true hype from critics or audiences.
Advertisement
Washington Post reported that the movie held the top spot for the third straight week with an estimated $20.7 million over its third weekend.
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s R-rated animated comedy Sausage Party took second place in its second weekend with $15.3 million (for a total of $65.3 million). The movie earned just $11 million from 3,000 screens, with another $10 million coming from 23 worldwide markets. Yes, David Ayer film retains its place on top of the podium for the third consecutive week and film shows revenues of more than $ 262 million for an estimated budget of 175 million!
War Dogs, the first film Todd Philips has directed since he completed The Hangover trilogy, debuted at three with $14.3m (£10.9m).
Meanwhile, Suicide Squad enjoyed a third week at the top of the chart despite its nearly unanimous critical panning.
Ben Hur is a remake of the 1959 classic of the same name and marks the return of Timur Bekmambetov to the director’s chair.
Three new opening films took spots three through five and while they were within three million dollars of each other, one of them was hugely disappointing.
A comedy-drama about two arms dealers in over their heads supplying weapons to United States forces in Iraq, its blend of light entertainment and serious subject matter got mixed reviews. Also if Suicide Squad can take next weekend too (and horror Don’t Breathe might be the only thing standing in its way), then it becomes the first movie of 2016 to stay on top for a full month.
A big-budget remake of “Ben-Hur” has been trampled at the weekend box office. “They still teach Ben-Hur in film school”. It met analyst projections of $12 million to $15 million and is a respectable start for a film that cost less than $50 million to make.
Advertisement
The weekend also marked the launch of “War Dogs”, an off-beat comedy about weapons dealers, picked up a modest $14.3 million for a fourth-place finish. CinemaScore was a solid A- so the people who went to see it liked it, just not enough of them were interested in going to the theaters.
