We’ve got a bona fide horror hit on our hands. Don’t Breathe easily won the weekend box office with a stellar $26.1 million debut, which is far above tracking numbers that had the film opening in the range of $11 million or so. The original home invasion horror pic opened even higher than director Fede Alvarez’s previous film, the 2013 Evil Dead remake, which scored $25.7 million in its opening frame. Screen Gems is no doubt happy as the pic was made on a slim budget of just $10 million, and coupled with positive reviews, this certainly gets things off to a great start.

Don’t Breathe marks the latest horror hit of 2016, as the low-budget Lights Out similarly outpaced expectations with a $21.6 million weekend. That pic grossed $111.3 million worldwide against a budget of just $4.9 million, making for a massive hit for Warner Bros.’ New Line label. Similarly, New Line’s The Conjuring 2 opened well back in June and has amassed $319.4 million worldwide, albeit against a higher budget of $40 million, while The Purge: Election Year amassed $105.6 million worldwide. In short, the horror genre is doing just fine.

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Image via Screen Gems

But as Don’t Breathe scored the top spot on the box office charts, Suicide Squad was finally knocked down to #2. The DC film scored $12.1 million over the weekend, marking an end to its three-week reign atop the box office—although it fared better than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which fell out of the top spot after just two weeks. Director David Ayer’s villain-centric pic has now grossed $282.9 million domestically for a worldwide total of $635 million, which is admittedly quite solid given that many doubted whether it could go any higher than $600 million. The film is semi-near the final $330.3 million domestic total that ended Batman v Superman’s run, but Zack Snyder’s film ratcheted up $542.3 million internationally while Suicide Squad has only amassed $353 million on that front thus far.


War Dogs suffered a pretty steep drop in its third week, falling to seventh place with just $27.7 million in total domestic gross at the moment, while Sony’s Sausage Party continues to bring in the dough as it’s now scored $80 million domestic—more than Disney’s pricey sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass. And speaking of success stories, STX Entertainment’s comedy Bad Moms has been the quiet hit of the summer, as the film has now grossed $95.4 million domestic with a worldwide cume of $116 million.

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Image via Millennium Films

In terms of new releases, the Jason Statham action sequel Mechanic: Resurrection debuted to just $7.5 million, which is below the $11.4 million opening of The Mechanic in 2011. That said, Lionsgate Premiere is banking on Resurrection faring well on the home entertainment market, so it’s possible VOD numbers justify the production overall. The boxing drama Hands of Stone, however, opened to just $1.7 million in 810 theaters, while the surprisingly good Obama love story Southside with You scored $3 million from 813 theaters.

The indie Western Hell or High Water continues to perform swimmingly as it slowly expands to more theaters across the country, as it scored $3.7 million—higher than Hands of Stone and Southside with You—from 909 theaters. The Jeff Bridges-fronted pic has been basking in stellar reviews, and it appears that word of mouth has indeed been strong. This brings its cumulative total to date to $8.5 million, and the film will continue to expand next weekend as it’s seeing little week-to-week drop in the theaters in which it’s already playing.

On a broader scale, The Jungle Book’s domestic gross has now surpassed Deadpool with $363.3 million, which means that Disney now dominates the top 3 domestic grossers of 2016 with Finding Dory at $479.1 million and Captain America: Civil War at $407.7 million. Worldwide, Disney dominates the top four spots with Civil War at $1.1 billion, Zootopia at $1 billion, Jungle Book at $959.6 million, and Finding Dory at $928.6 million. All hail the Mouse House.

Check out the full Top 10 chart of weekend estimates below.


Rank

Title

Weekend

Total

1.

Don’t Breathe

$26,115,000

$26,115,000

2.

Suicide Squad

$12,110,000

$282,882,627

3.

Kubo and the Two Strings

$7,909,000

$24,920,378

4.

Sausage Party

$7,665,000

$80,008,510

5.

Mechanic: Resurrection

$7,500,000

$7,500,000

6.

Pete’s Dragon

$7,282,000

$54,715,378

7.

War Dogs

$7,255,000

$27,757,687

8.

Bad Moms

$5,760,000

$95,453,235

9.

Jason Bourne

$5,230,000

$149,257,235

10.

Ben-Hur

$4,530,000

$19,552,877

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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via CBS Films/Lionsgate