Don't Breathe has a grip on first place!
Low-budget horror invaded theaters this weekend and put DON'T BREATHE on top of the box office with an estimated opening of $26.1 million!
The R-rated thriller, with a blind Stephen Lang turning the tables on trespassers, only cost a reported $10 million and scored the second-biggest debut of the year for the horror genre behind THE CONJURING 2's $40.4 million opening in June.
The opening for DON'T BREATHE also came in higher than director Fede Alvarez's 2013 remake of EVIL DEAD, which started out with $25.7 million. Critics were satisfied with his new tense tale, giving it a solid 87% average on Rotten Tomatoes.
After three weekends in the #1 spot, SUICIDE SQUAD slipped to second with $12.1 million for a domestic total of $282.2 million on its fourth week in theaters. Between that and a current worldwide total of $636 million, the team of expendable second-string supervillains is actually closing in on the territory of Superman himself (MAN OF STEEL ended with $291 million domestic and $668 million worldwide).
Beyond the top two, there was a battle for the middle as the next five releases on the list all made close to the same amount. The stop-motion animated fantasy KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS moved up one position to third with $7.9 million, losing only 37% of business from its fourth-place opening last week. The R-rated animated comedy SAUSAGE PARTY was behind it in fourth with $7.6 million, bringing the rude food to an $80.8 million domestic total.
Opening in fifth was the new Jason Statham hitman movie MECHANIC: RESURRECTION with $7.5 million. The follow-up to THE MECHANIC had a worse start than the $11.4 million opening of that 2011 remake, but the opening was fairly standard for recent R-rated Statham solo flicks (HOMEFRONT – $6.9 million; PARKER – $7 million; SAFE – $7.8 million). Critics gunned down the sequel with a 24% average on Rotten Tomatoes.
Disney's live-action update of PETE'S DRAGON was in sixth place with $7.2 million, giving it a domestic total of $54.7 million. The R-rated Miles Teller/Jonah Hill comedy WAR DOGS came in seventh with $7.2 million, down 50% from its third-place opening last weekend.
Holding in eighth place was the comedy BAD MOMS with $5.7 million as it draws near the $100 million mark (the only R-rated summer comedy to do so). JASON BOURNE followed in ninth with $5.2 million, and after five weekends is at nearly $150 million domestic and has earned $348 million worldwide (thanks in part to a $50 million opening in China this past week). Director Timur Bekmambetov's BEN-HUR closed out the list with $4.5 million, losing nearly 60% from last week's opening.
Outside the chart, THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS finally trotted away from the Top 10 along with FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS. The new Edgar Ramirez/Robert De Niro boxing biopic HANDS OF STONE opened on 810 screens for $1.7 million, while the "young Obama" drama SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU made $3 million on the same number of locations.
With the summer movie season behind us, the upcoming Labor Day weekend offers the sci-fi horror movie MORGAN and the Michael Fassbender/Alicia Vikander drama THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS, plus limited releases of Kevin Smith's YOGA HOSERS and Alexandre Aja's thriller THE 9TH LIFE OF LOUIS DRAX.
Which September release are you most interested in seeing? VOTE HERE!
| # | MOVIE TITLE | WKND $ | TOTAL $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don't Breathe | $26.1 M | NEW |
| 2 | Suicide Squad | $12.1 M | $282.8 M |
| 3 | Kubo and the Two Strings | $7.9 M | $24.9 M |
| 4 | Sausage Party | $7.6 M | $80 M |
| 5 | Mechanic: Resurrection | $7.5 M | NEW |
| 6 | War Dogs | $7.2 M | $27.7 M |
| 7 | Pete's Dragon | $7.2 M | $54.7 M |
| 8 | Bad Moms | $5.7 M | $95.4 M |
| 9 | Jason Bourne | $5.2 M | $149.3 M |
| 10 | Ben-Hur | $4.5 M | $19.5 M |