New Releases Are No Match Against "Sully" This Weekend

[JamesG]

Sully Delivers Top Five September Opening with $35.5 Million
by Brad Brevet
September 11, 2016


It has been seven years since Tom Hanks starred in a live action film that opened atop the weekend box office, but Sully changes all that as the true life feature delivered one of the five best September openings of all-time.

Finishing in second was another one of the weekend's new wide releases, Sony and Screen Gems' When the Bough Breaks, while Lionsgate's The Wild Life and Relativity's The Disappointments Room failed to make much of an impression.

Overall, this weekend's top twelve delivered nearly $86 million, a small uptick from the same weekend last year with nearly 60% of the top twelve cumulative gross coming from the top two new releases.







Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks as Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, Sully opened at #1 with an estimated $35.5 million, the fifth largest September opening of all-time, largest September opening for Warner Bros. by nearly $12 million (The Town / $23.8m) and largest post-Labor Day opening of all-time.

Add to that, this is the first time since 2009's Angels & Demons that Tom Hanks has starred in a live-action film that opened #1 at the box office. The film, which was the first Hollywood feature film to ever be shot 100% with IMAX cameras, was also the largest September IMAX opening for a wide release, pulling in an estimated $4 million from 375 IMAX locations.



Sully received an "A" CinemaScore from opening day audiences which were split 44% male vs. 56% female and 80% of the overall audience was over the age of 35.

It will be interesting to see where the film goes from here as a domestic haul around $105-110 million would typically be the safest bet for an opening of this sort, but given this is a well-received, adult-targeted feature, it could climb to $130+ million and not be the least bit surprising.







Finishing in second is Screen Gems' When the Bough Breaks with an estimated $15 million for its opening weekend. This is a pretty steep drop compared to previous Screen Gems releases targeting the same audience, such as last year's The Perfect Guy which opened with $25.8 and No Good Deed, which opened one year earlier with $24.2 million.

The fact the budget was only $10 million helps the overall picture, but given Bough received a 0% RottenTomatoes score and a "B" CinemaScore you can look for this one to fall sharply next weekend by 60% or more.







Next is Lionsgate's P&A pickup, the animated feature The Wild Life, which delivered an estimated $3.4 million, just managing to sneak into the top five.

The film fell a bit short of its $5 million expectations and won't likely be hanging around the weekend top ten for much longer. The film scored a "B-" CinemaScore.







The last of the weekend's new wide releases brings us to Relativity's The Disappointments Room which delivered on its title and failed to find a spot within the top 15, serving up an estimated $1.4 million.

This is an even worse per theater average ($901 PTA from 1,554 theaters) than last weekend's flop, Morgan. The film received a "D" CinemaScore from opening day audiences and, like When the Bough Breaks, currently holds a 0% on RottenTomatoes.







Coming off Labor Day weekend it was to be expected that weekend drops would be a little heftier than normal, but a lot of films held on quite nicely beginning with the recent horror hit Don't Breathe, which dropped only 48.1% and brought in an estimated $8.2 million.

The film is now up to $66.8 million domestically.







Finishing behind Don't Breathe in fourth position is WB's Suicide Squad, which brought in an estimated $5.65 million as its domestic cume now sits at $307.4 million.

Suicide Squad also brought in another $10.1 million internationally this weekend including an estimated $3.6 million from its debut in Japan as its international cume now sits at $392 million for a worldwide total of $699.4 million, though keep an eye out as domestic and international actuals tomorrow afternoon could very well push it over the $700 million mark.







Elsewhere, Disney's Pete's Dragon cracked $70 million at the domestic box office after adding an estimated $2.9 million this weekend.

STX's Bad Moms continues its impressive run, dropping only 40.6% this weekend and delivering an estimated $2.8 million as its domestic cume climbs to $107.5 million. After seven weekends in release Bad Moms has so far delivered a 4.51 multiplier based on its $23.8 million opening and it's still delivering solid numbers within the weekend top ten.







In limited release Focus World's Kicks brought in an estimated $32,000 from three theaters for a $10,667 PTA and Janus' Cameraperson finished with an estimated $12,897 from one theater.

Additionally, Other People brought in an estimated $38,000 from 12 theaters; The Orchard's Demon finished with $13,560 from three theaters; Cohen Media's Come What May brought in an estimated $10,656 from two theaters; and IFC's Dancer brought in $7,000 from one theater.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4221&p=.htm









September 9-11, 2016 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Sully $35,505,000
2. When the Bough Breaks $15,000,000
3. Don't Breathe $8,210,000 / $66,833,158
4. Suicide Squad $5,650,000 / $307,407,853
5. The Wild Life $3,400,000
6. Kubo and the Two Strings $3,230,000 / $40,847,680
7. Pete's Dragon $2,938,000 / $70,016,653
8. Bad Moms $2,830,000 / $107,526,266
9. High or High Water $2,600,000 / $19,823,734
10. Sausage Party $2,300,000 / $93,182,579

[JamesG]

Sully Repeats at #1 While Blair Witch, Bridget Jones & Snowden Fall Short
by Brad Brevet
September 18, 2016


As expected, Clint Eastwood's Sully enjoyed a second straight weekend atop the box office and it wasn't much of a competition. Not one of the weekend's three new widest releases managed to even top ten million as Blair Witch and Bridget Jones's Baby fell well short of expectations and Open Road's Snowden pretty much delivered as expected depending on whom you asked.

Overall, the weekend's top twelve was down 11.6% compared to last week and down 24.3% compared to last year with the top twelve generating an estimated $74.6 million, just $136k shy of the worst weekend of the year so far.







With an estimated $22 million, Sully dropped only 37% in its second weekend as the film's domestic cume now stands at $70.5 million, just $1.8 million shy of the entire run of Tom Hanks' Bridge of Spies, which went on to earn six Oscar nominations last year including a win for Supporting Actor.

The film also expanded its international footprint, adding five markets grossing an estimated $7 million outside the United States bringing its international cume to $23.4 million for a worldwide cume just shy of $94 million.







Taking second place is Lionsgate's Blair Witch with an estimated $9.65 million. Heading into the weekend, industry expectations pegged it for an opening in the mid to high teens while Mojo and many others expected an opening at, or north of, $20 million.

Fortunately the production budget was a mere $5 million, but this was certainly expected to perform much better than it did.



Marketing certainly wasn't the issue as the studio roused excitement at Comic Con this year where the film was screened for audiences that only knew the film as The Woods, only to learn they were sitting down for a new installment in the Blair Witch franchise, which began with the industry-changing original 17 years ago.

However, heading into the weekend reviews weren't glowing as the RottenTomatoes score has since dipped to 37% and opening day audiences gave the film a dismal "D+" CinemaScore, which doesn't bode well for its future prospects. The audience breakdown was 56% male vs. 44% female with 61% of the opening weekend audience coming in over the age of 25.







Pulling in third, and also delivering a disappointing domestic opening, is Universal's Bridget Jones's Baby with an estimated $8.2 million. Heading into the weekend the expectation was for this one to deliver the largest opening of the franchise, somewhere in the low to mid-teens.

Instead it finished with the worst opening of the franchise despite opening in 1,316 more theaters than the 2001 original, which opened with $10.7 million, and nearly 2,400 more theaters than 2004's Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which opened with $8.6 million.



From a quality perspective, following the much-loved original, Edge of Reason was dismissed by critics and audiences alike, yet reviews for Bridget Jones's Baby were strong heading into the weekend, scoring a "Certified Fresh" rating at RottenTomatoes followed by a "B+" CinemaScore from opening day audiences.

Perhaps the film will be able to eke out some decent holds in the future, despite the lackluster domestic start. Opening day demographics saw a breakdown of 79% female vs. 21% male with 72% of the audience coming in over the age of 35.







Finishing in fourth position just behind Bridget Jones is Open Road's Snowden with an estimated $8 million. The film was expected to have a tough time topping $10 million and it met those expectations.

The film did, however, have an impact on opening day audiences, receiving an "A" CinemaScore, the best score among the weekend's three widest new releases.







Rounding out the top five, and likely a contributing factor to Blair Witch's opening weekend struggles, is the continued strong performance of Don't Breathe, which dropped only 32% in its fourth weekend for an estimated $5.6 million.

The film's domestic cume now stands at $75.3 million and has now topped $107 million worldwide on a budget under $10 million.







Elsewhere in the top ten, Suicide Squad dropped only 17.7% in its seventh weekend, hauling in an estimated $4.7 million as its domestic cume now climbs to $313.7 million.

It also grossed an additional $5.8 million internationally this weekend where its cume has now climbed to $405.1 million for a worldwide total of $718.8 million.







Finishing outside the top twelve was Pure Flix's Hillsong: Let Hope Rise with an estimated $1.3 million from 816 theaters.

It was thought, heading into the weekend, this one could find its way into the top ten with an opening around $2.5 million and while the target audience clearly took to the film, awarding it an "A" CinemaScore, it just didn't expand far enough outside its target demographic.







In limited release, Ron Howard's documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years brought in an estimated $615,632 from 84 theaters this weekend while Freestyle's release of Mr. Church, Eddie Murphy's first film in four years, could only manage an estimated $407,151 from 354 theaters ($1,150 PTA).

Additional limited releases find China Lion's **** and Bull bringing in an estimated $35,000 from 12 theaters ($2,917 PTA); A23's Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? brought in an estimated $9,600 from two theaters ($4,800 PTA); The Orchard's Miss Stevens brought in an estimated $3,005 from two theaters ($1,503 PTA); FilmRise's Silicon Cowboys debuted with $5,250 from 12 theaters ($438 PTA); and Weinstein and Dimension's Wild Oats slinked to an estimated $18,700 from 100 theaters for a measly $187 per theater average.







One last weekend highlight finds Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures' The Secret Life of Pets crossing $800 million at the worldwide box office today. The film has grossed an estimated $363.4 million domestically and $441.6 million internationally.

With an estimated $805 million, it is currently the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2016 at the worldwide box office.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4223&p=.htm









September 16-18, 2016 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Sully $22,000,000 / $70,541,351
2. Blair Witch $9,650,000
3. Bridget Jones's Baby $8,240,715
4. Snowden $8,023,329
5. Don't Breathe $5,600,000 / $75,328,781
6. When the Bough Breaks $5,525,000 / $22,697,732
7. Suicide Squad $4,710,000 / $313,782,332
8. The Wild Life $2,650,000 / $6,664,269
9. Kubo and the Two Strings $2,509,000 / $44,240,974
10. Pete's Dragon $2,041,000 / $72,805,525