The bad news is the same – between these two films, Warner Bros. and DC Comics have left about a half-billion on the table, as the domestic gross for Suicide Squad has meandered its way up to $262.3 million. Abe Forsythe’s black comedy dropped 55 percent over the weekend, and is sitting on $82,906 overall.
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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.
The new film stars Jack Huston as Judah Ben-Hur, alongside Morgan Freeman and Rodrigo Santoro, who plays Jesus Christ.
“War Dogs”, the first movie after “The Hangover” trilogy for director Todd Phillips, was lambasted by critics but sold a decent $14.3 million in ticket sales.
That lack of moral compass – combined with way too much voiceover – has pushed “War Dogs” to a below-average Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, but audiences seem to like the film just fine. Overseas, box office over there has crossed the $300 million mark.
The film, which reportedly cost around $100m (£77m) to make, took just $11.4m (£8.7m) on its opening weekend. The indie label debuted “Kubo and the Two Strings”, an animated story about a boy and a monkey who try to find a magical suit of armor in Ancient Japan. It’s the lowest opening for a Laika and Focus collaboration. With the help of his shamisen – a magical musical instrument – Kubo must battle gods and monsters, including the vengeful Moon King (Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes) and the evil twin Sisters (Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara), to unlock the secret of his legacy, reunite his family, and fulfill his heroic destiny.
Sixth place belonged to Pete’s Dragon which slipped 47% in its second go around, picking up an additional $11.33M this weekend, according to estimates.
Suicide Squad has a $262,283,335 million domestic gross, with a $310,400,000 worldwide gross. The movie, billed as a modern-day Western, is scoring in both arthouses and in theaters across Texas, the Southwest and South. Chris Pine, Jeff Bridges and Ben Foster star. “We have several major markets yet to open, and expect to continue seeing strong returns at the box office for the weeks to come”, WB executive Veronika Kwan Vandenberg said in a statement Thursday. If there is good news, the Friday-to-Friday drop for Suicide came in at 54%, a few points better than Batman v Superman’s 60% Friday-to-Friday drop.
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Focus Features’ division Focus World, a theatrical-VOD label, is handling Love and Darkness.
