Weekend Wrap-Up

Openers Surprise to the Upside at Weekend Box Office

By John Hamann

July 31, 2016

Damon wants to prove his body is equal to or better than Affleck's.

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Bad Moms starts big in third, never having a chance to really compete with Bourne, but still a very strong debut nonetheless. The female-driven comedy started powerfully on Friday picking up $9.6 million ($2.1 million from previews). As the always-awesome Kim Hollis said yesterday in the BOP’s Friday update, upstart distributor STX Entertainment clearly had their biggest thing ever going, as their biggest to date was The Boy, the silly looking horror thriller with The Walking Dead’s Lauren Cohan, which surprisingly legged out $64 million globally against a budget of only $10 million. The Boy opened to $10.8 million, a number Bad Moms easily doubles.

Bad Moms opened this weekend to a wild $23.4 million, about 20% better than what tracking was looking for (similar to Bourne). Bad Moms opens in that comedy sweet spot, shared by highly successful films like Trainwreck ($30 million opening – still love you Amy – make more films!), We’re the Millers ($26.4 million open, $150 million domestic finish), and what is probably its closest kin in Bridesmaids ($26.2 million open, $288 million worldwide). Bad Moms got fairly good reviews – 63% fresh, which is worse than Bridesmaids but better than We’re the Millers, but scores the A Cinemascore, which will create strong word-of-mouth. The Cinemascore is better than any of the other comedies mentioned, so I see big things in the future for this one, which stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and the very funny Kathryn Hahn.




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The Secret Life of Pets drops from second to fourth this weekend. The latest Illumination blockbuster earned another $18.2 million this weekend, but drops a little higher than hoped at 39%. Universal’s other big hit in the top ten now has $296.2 million in domestic coin, and is going to cross the $300 million mark in mere days. That means that half of Illumination Entertainment’s releases have earned more than $300 million at the domestic box office, a feat accomplished by only 62 films in history. It also has earned $99 million overseas from only a few territories, and debuted in France and Germany this weekend. Expect it to hit $500 million in overseas sales before all is said and done – and all of it against a budget of only $75 million.

Lights Out is fifth, and after the thriller caught an awesome $21.7 million in its debut last weekend, it fell back to earth this frame. The out-of-nowhere horror hit earned $10.8 million as it got squeezed out of the big theaters due to an abundance of product. The drop comes in at 50%, which is fairly respectable for this type of film. It’s even better for a film that cost only $4.9 million to make and now has earned $42.9 million, or almost nine times its budget.

Sixth goes to the tired Ice Age: Collision Course, which opened to a somewhat disappointing (but expected) $21.4 million last weekend. Like Star Trek Beyond, this franchise is tired, and in its second weekend it drops a painful 51%, as it earns only $10.5 million. The number to watch is the overseas figure, though. So far, Collision Course has earned over $212 million from countries outside of the US and Canada. Domestically, it’s the opposite, as the gross has reached a comparatively tiny $42.1 million.


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