Weekend Box Office Report: July 15-17, 2016

Secret Life of Pets still sitting on top!

The antics of animated animals were the biggest draw for audiences again this weekend as THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS remained in first place at the box office with an estimated $50.5 million!

The latest effort from 'toon studio Illumination (DESPICABLE ME) dropped a little more than 50% from its opening last week, and has already fetched over $200 million domestic in ten days (plus an additional $50 million from overseas, where it won't be widely released until next month).

Opening in second place was the update of GHOSTBUSTERS with $46 million. The PG-13 reboot of the fan-favorite franchise cost a reported $144 million, and marked the biggest debut for director Paul Feig and regular collaborator Melissa McCarthy, beating THE HEAT's $39.1 million opening in June of 2013.

The very idea of relaunching the spirit-catching series with female leads was met with varying amounts of admiration and agitation from individuals (others just seemed content that Ecto-Cooler returned). But the majority of critics embraced the new version — particularly Kate McKinnon's loopy engineer — with a 73% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

Most of the Top 10 simply shifted down a spot, with THE LEGEND OF TARZAN continuing a surprisingly muscular performance in third place with $11.1 million as it climbed past $100 million on its third weekend in theaters. The $180 million Alexander Skarsgard/Margot Robbie update of the Edgar Rice Burroughs character has now collected $193 million worldwide.

In fourth was FINDING DORY with $11 million. At a domestic total of $445.5 million after five weekends, the sequel isn't only the highest-grossing Pixar movie and the biggest release of 2016, but it has also passed THE LION KING and SHREK 2 to become the most successful animated release in domestic history. (That said, with a current worldwide total of $721.7 million, DORY has some serious swimming to ever catch the $1.27 billion global finish of current animated champ FROZEN.)

The R-rated comedy MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES was in fifth place with $7.5 million, down 55% from its opening last week for a 10-day domestic total of $31.3 million (nearly grossing its $33 million reported cost).

THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR came in sixth with $6 million for a domestic total of $71 million, shooting past the $64 million finish of the original THE PURGE and converging on the $71.9 million total of THE PURGE: ANARCHY. Its worldwide total of almost $150 million does make it the biggest in the series, all on a reported $10 million budget.

The Kevin Hart/Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson action-comedy CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE made another $5.3 million in seventh place on a slow roll to $117 million domestic and $180 million worldwide (for a reported cost of $50 million).

The new Bryan Cranston thriller THE INFILTRATOR placed in eighth with $5.2 million for the weekend, and $6.7 million since it opened on Wednesday. The R-rated story of the undercover operation into Pablo Escobar's drug empire received a 65% average from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

At the bottom was Steven Spielberg's fantasy THE BFG with $3.7 million and a domestic total close to the filmmaker's MUNICH, and Roland Emmerich's sequel INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE, still on the list after a month without hitting the $100 million domestic mark.

Outside the chart, the shark thriller THE SHALLOWS and the Bollywood drama SULTAN disappeared. James Wan's THE CONJURING 2 crossed $100 million domestic and $300 million worldwide (close to the $318 million finish of the first THE CONJURING) while in limited release, Woody Allen's CAFE SOCIETY had an excellent $71k per-screen average to start.

Next weekend has FAST & FURIOUS director Justin Lin commanding the Enterprise crew in STAR TREK BEYOND, animated prehistoric beasts continue to wander in ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE, and darkness provides terror in the spooky movie LIGHTS OUT.

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