WEEKEND BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN: August 5-7, 2016

SUICIDE SQUAD ASSASSINATES AUGUST RECORDS

~Matt Reed
Hailing Frequencies Open

No surprise as it’s been predicted for several months, but SUICIDE SQUAD opened huge. Its $135.1 mil haul slaughtered the previous record holder, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, by nearly $41 mil. That’s the good news. The bad news is the reviews. To say they’ve been harsh would be an understatement. All threats by some to shut down Rotten Tomatoes aside, it currently rests at 26%. That’s 1% lower than BvS, which, itself, was a critical flop and a middling disappointment. My personal belief is that although SS dominated this weekend, it won’t have GotG sized legs. Repeat business drove GotG, so the telling number will be next weekend. How far will it drop?

The other new release this weekend, NINE LIVES, has one of the worst Rotten Tomato scores I’ve ever seen: 4%. Yup. You read that right. A whopping 4%. Not entirely sure who the perceived audience was for this dad-turned-cat movie, but it connected with no one by opening with $6.5 mil, good enough for 6th place.

In its second week, JASON BOURNE scored $22.7 mil, which helped it cross the $100 mil mark in ten days. Note, however, the drastic week-to-week loss: nearly 62%. That’s horrible. It appears that franchise lovers came opening weekend and spread poor word of mouth. Although this will make more money than the previous Matt Damon-less THE BOURNE LEGACY ($113.2 mil in 2012), it’s doubtful that it will reach the final domestics of either THE BOURNE SUPREMACY ($176.2 mil 2004) or THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM ($227.4 mil in 2007).

Short Takes: BAD MOMS looks like a hit. Made for a slim $20 mil, the film has currently earned $51 mil. Not so great news for STAR TREK BEYOND, as it’s $127.9 mil domestic haul is $50 mil less than STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS had earned by this same time in its run. GHOSTBUSTERS is fading into obscurity. Against a $144 mil budget and what was a huge marketing campaign on top of that, it has earned $116.7 mil. International is worse, just $62.8 mil as of August 7.

Up Next: Disney dipping into the remake well once again with PETE’S DRAGON. Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen try their hand at animation with the decidedly adult SAUSAGE PARTY. Finally, Paramount releases the drama FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.

Here, as always, are the weekend domestic estimates courtesy of our friends at Box Office Mojo: