MAGNIFICENT SEVEN’S IMPRESSIVE DEBUT AND ANOTHER GREAT WEEKEND FOR WARNER BROTHERS BANISH THE SEPTEMBER BOX OFFICE BLAHS
September is usually a quiet month for Hollywood. A time for summer leftovers, award films and small budget flicks that would probably get killed any other time of the year to try and make a few bucks. And it definitely isn’t supposed to be a time for 100 million dollar hits.
Somebody might want to remind Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington to check their calendars.
As expected, The Magnificent Seven debuted atop the box office last weekend with an impressive 35 million. How audiences would receive a big budget western, let alone a remake of a classic with a more ethnically diverse cast was a fairly big question. Turns out they didn’t have a problem with it, and while it isn’t the biggest debut of Washington’s career (Magnificent Seven came in just behind American Gangster and Safe House for that honour), if it follows the same box office trajectory as his other movies it should have no problem breaking the 100 million dollar mark.
Meanwhile Sully continues it’s surprisingly strong performance. The Warner Brothers drama starring Tom Hanks as real life hero Captain Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger fell to third place at North America’s box office after owning the top spot for two straight weeks. Sully pulled in another 13.8 million, pushing it’s three week total past 92 million. It should hit the century mark next weekend and is already getting a lot of award buzz.
It was another good weekend for Warner Brothers, who are coming off a great summer. Outside of Sully, they had two other titles in the top ten. While the animated kids flick Storks didn’t open as well as hoped with just over 21 million on its first weekend, it has a relatively humble budget of 70 million. If it proves to have decent enough legs domestically and can pull off a strong performance overseas (the norm for animated fare), it should at least break even. And Suicide Squad is still hanging around the top ten, eight weeks after it’s release. The 3.1 million it pulled in this weekend was enough to hold onto eighth spot and the anti-hero flick has now collected over 318 million dollars domestically. The watch is officially on to see if it can catch Batman Vs. Superman’s domestic number of 330 million. If it does, the question may become who gets promoted? Or who gets fired?
The slate of last week’s disappointing new releases made up the body of this weekend’s top ten. But in an amusing twist, the strongest of those releases, Blair Witch, fell behind last week’s other two releases, Bridget Jones Baby and Snowden. Bridget Jones fell just one spot, going from third to fourth with 4.6 million, while Oliver Stone’s Snowden fell from fourth to fifth and Witch pulled up the rear in sixth, both with 4 million (the two were separated by a mere thirty thousand). It’s a complete reversal of how the three titles fell last week.
Sony had a pair of other titles in this weekend’s top ten; the breakout hit Don’t Breathe (seventh with 3.7 million) and When The Bough Breaks (ninth with 2.5 million) while Focus’ animated adventure Kubo and the Two Strings came in tenth with 1.1 million.
It will be fun watching a pair of polar opposites square of next weekend as the fantasy Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (based on the bestselling Young Adult book) and the real life drama Deepwater Horizon (inspired by the worst environmental disaster in American history) hit theatres. You couldn’t get a pair of movies further apart, and both have reasonable star power behind them. Watching this fight may prove more entertaining than the Presidential debates. And can September pull off another 30 million plus debut on its last weekend?
Until next time take care and turn your phones off when the lights go down.
Photo Sony Pictures Entertainment
Numbers www.boxofficemojo.com
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