Weekend Wrap-Up
Pets Slaughter Mike and Dave
By David Mumpower and Kim Hollis
July 10, 2016
After a dominant opening weekend, The Purge: Election Year does what all “Purge” movies do in weekend two. It fell back to earth. With a 63% decline from weekend-to-weekend, The Purge was able to add another $11.7 million to its coffers. That brings its overall domestic total to $58.1 million, with overseas box office results really only just getting started. It’s probably safe to assume that we’ll continue to receive more sequels until audiences start to lose interest.
The best hold in the top ten goes to Central Intelligence, the buddy comedy featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart (who is having a pretty fine summer given that he’s also one of the primary voice actors in The Secret Life of Pets). The Warner Bros. release earned $8.1 million this weekend, down just 35% from the previous frame. With its conservative $50 million budget, Central Intelligence is looking like a bright spot in a summer full of misfires, as it has earned $108.3 million domestically and $32 million internationally.
Independence Day: Resurgence is only just now seeing its domestic total (almost) match the amount the first film made during its holiday inflated six-day opening weekend in 1996. The original film had earned a gaudy $96.1 million after that six day holiday frame; Independence Day: Resurgence has crossed the $90 million mark after three weekends of release and is falling fast. Its $7.7 million Friday-to-Sunday total represents a 54% decline from the previous weekend. If there is any good news to be found, it’s that the film has so far earned $186 million from overseas venues, giving it a worldwide tally just over $275 million. Still, given the $165 million budget, this is nowhere near good enough. It’s another of our examples of remakes/reboots/sequels that no one cared about this summer.
Steven Spielberg’s latest directorial effort is nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. The BFG, the CGI/live action combo adapted from Roald Dahl’s popular children’s story, fell a precipitous 60% in weekend two to $7.6 million. So far, the Walt Disney production has earned just $38.7 million domestically and $11.9 million internationally, neither of which is going to be good enough to make a dent in the $140 million production budget. The film has decent reviews (72% at Rotten Tomatoes) and audience response (A- at Cinemascore), but the film simply wasn’t marketed in a way that enticed people to go out and see it. It probably will find some sort of second life on home video.
Ninth place goes to the shockingly resilient little survival horror film The Shallows. Now in its third weekend of release, the Columbia release earned another $4.8 million and declined 45%, the second-best hold in the top 12. The Blake Lively starrer has now earned $45.8 million domestically against its modest $17 million budget.
Rounding out the top ten is the Bollywood “sports romance” Sultan. From Yash Raj films, Sultan was out to just 283 venues but still managed to gross an impressive $2.2 million, good for a $7,832 location average. The film’s star, Salman Khan, is one of the most popular actors in Hindi cinema, so this niche audience was clearly excited for the opportunity to see him on the big screen.
The top 12 films at the box office earned a mighty $206 million thanks to the strength of The Secret Life of Pets. That number is... exactly even with 2015, which is when Minions opened to $115.7 million. Even though Minions had the stronger debut than Pets, the remainder of this year's top 12 showed more strength. Next weekend brings one of the big question marks of the year in Ghostbusters, along with the Bryan Cranston flick The Infiltrators.
|
Top Ten for Weekend of July 8-10, 2016
|
Rank |
Film |
Distributor |
Estimated Gross (millions) |
Weekly Change |
Running Total (millions) |
|
1
|
The Secret Life of Pets
|
Universal
|
103.2
|
New
|
103.2
|
|
2
|
The Legend of Tarzan
|
Warner Bros.
|
20.6
|
-47%
|
81.4
|
|
3
|
Finding Dory
|
Walt Disney
|
20.4
|
-51%
|
422.5
|
|
4
|
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
|
20th Century Fox
|
16.6
|
New
|
16.6
|
|
5
|
The Purge: Election Year
|
Universal
|
11.7
|
-63%
|
58.1
|
|
6
|
Central Intelligence
|
Warner Bros.
|
8.1
|
-35%
|
108.3
|
|
7
|
Independence Day: Resurgence
|
20th Century Fox
|
7.7
|
-54%
|
91.5
|
|
8
|
The BFG
|
Walt Disney
|
7.6
|
-60%
|
38.7
|
|
9
|
The Shallows
|
Sony
|
4.8
|
-45%
|
45.8
|
|
10
|
Sultan
|
Yash Raj Films
|
2.2
|
New
|
3.8
|
|
11
|
The Conjuring 2
|
Warner Bros.
|
1.7
|
-55%
|
99.4
|
|
12
|
Now You See Me 2
|
Lionsgate
|
1.4
|
-54%
|
62.2
|
Continued:
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