Weekend Box Office Report: September 16-18, 2016

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Sully still soars!

Tom Hanks safely landing a plane on the Hudson River remained the most interesting option for audiences this weekend, keeping SULLY in first place at the box office with an estimated $22 million!

Director Clint Eastwood's $60 million drama, which centers on real-life pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and the 2009 event, dipped only 37% from its opening last weekend to give SULLY a 10-day domestic total of $70.5 million.

Opening in second place was the new horror movie BLAIR WITCH with $9.6 million. The sequel obviously didn't capture the same attention that turned the 1999 "found footage" release into a pop-culture phenomenon that started with $29 million on its first wide weekend before ultimately grossing $248 million worldwide. (The derided 2000 follow-up BLAIR WITCH 2: BOOK OF SHADOWS opened with $13.2 million and ended with $26.4 million.)

The latest visit to the haunted forest, from writer-director team Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard (THE GUEST, YOU'RE NEXT), only cost a reported $5 million to make. Critics weren't excited about getting lost in the woods again, giving the movie a 37% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

In third place was the new sequel BRIDGET JONES'S BABY with an opening of $8.2 million. The latest chapter reunited Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth after 2001's BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY (which opened with $10.7 million and made $281 million worldwide) and the 2004 follow-up BRIDGET JONES: EDGE OF REASON ($8.6 million opening and $262 million worldwide).

The romantic comedy cost a reported $35 million and has made an additional $29.9 million from international crowds. Critics were mostly pleased to see Bridget for the first time in 12 years, giving it a 78% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

Opening in fourth place was director Oliver Stone's SNOWDEN with $8 million. The fact-based thriller, featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the CIA employee who leaked NSA surveillance secrets to the public, cost a reported $40 million to produce and has a current critical score of 58% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The R-rated horror movie DON'T BREATHE felt its way to fifth place with $5.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $75.3 million on its fourth weekend in theaters (on a $10 million budget). The Morris Chestnut/Regina Hall thriller WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS fell to sixth with $5.5 million, dropping 61% from its second-place opening last week.

SUICIDE SQUAD was in seventh with $4.7 million as the DC Comics super-criminals have now collected $718 million worldwide. The talking-animal family feature THE WILD LIFE followed in eighth with $2.6 million (down 20% from its soft opening last weekend), while Laika's stop-motion animated KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS and Disney's live-action PETE'S DRAGON finished up the Top 10 this week.

Outside the chart, the acclaimed crime-drama HELL OR HIGH WATER just barely missed the list with $1.9 million, and R-rated comedies SAUSAGE PARTY and BAD MOMS retreated. Meanwhile, Eddie Murphy quietly returned to theaters in the drama MR. CHURCH, which made $407k on 354 screens.

Next weekend has Denzel Washington rounding up Chris Pratt and five other dudes for director Antoine Fuqua's remake of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and computer-animated birds deliver babies in STORKS.

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