Weekend Box Office: Above and Beyond

Just when the summer season typically starts slowing down, 2016 is moving forward at maximum warp. Up 30% year-over-year, it was a busy weekend at the box office.

Aside from the ‘Ghostbusters’ reboot and the latest ‘Ice Age’ entry, all Top 10 movies outgrossed expectations. With ‘Jason Bourne’ and ‘Suicide Squad’ on the horizon, it doesn’t appear that things will slow any time soon.

The third entry to J.J. Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ universe took the top spot this weekend. From 3,928 locations, ‘Star Trek Beyond‘ earned a solid $59.6 million. As with most franchises, each new entry has seen a slight decline. 2009’s ‘Star Trek‘ debuted to $75.2 million and closed with $257.7 million. ‘Star Trek into Darkness‘ dropped 7% with a $70.1 million opening and closed with $228.7 million. The opening of ‘Beyond’ dipped 15% from that and is poised to bow around $180 million. Only partway into its international release, the movie has grossed $30 million overseas and is tracking to close approximately 15% behind the international numbers for ‘Into Darkness’. With a price tag of $185 million, the space-based action movie has some ground to cover, but shouldn’t have too much problem doing so.

Despite a brand new animated kids’ movie opening this weekend, ‘The Secret Life of Pets‘ landed in second place its third week. Even with the new competition, it only fell 42% week-over-week. The $29.3 million weekend brings its 17-day domestic total up to $260.7 million, which is very impressive given the movie’s $75 million budget. $63 million has been generated internationally, giving it a $323.7 million worldwide total. It won’t be long now before Universal greenlights a sequel, which will probably steal the plot from ‘Toy Story 2’.

Typically, one of the characteristics of Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy movies is strong holdover, but there’s some abnormal activity happening with ‘Ghostbusters‘. Instead of the usual 30-something percent decline, their reboot dropped 53% and landed in the #3 spot. Its second week resulted in $21.6 million and a ten-day total of $86.8 million. It made $36 million internationally for a worldwide total of $122.8 million. With a $144 million budget, the film definitely has some ground to make up and will have to perform harder than ‘Star Trek Beyond’ to end up in the positive.

Fresh off ‘The Conjuring 2’, the James Wan-produced PG-13 horror title ‘Lights Out‘ opened in the #4 spot with $21.6 million. It scared up another $8.3 million from several international markets, giving it a $29.9 million worldwide opening. That’s fantastic for a small horror flick with a budget of $4.5 million. It’s all profit from here on out.

Coming in just behind that was ‘Ice Age: Collision Course‘, the fifth entry in the should-be-extinct animated franchise. Considering that the second film (‘The Meltdown’) had the series’ highest opening ($68 million) and each of the other three debuted in the $40 million range, it comes as a massive blow that ‘Collision Course’ opened in the #5 spot to just $21 million. On the flip side, now a few weeks in, the movie’s international returns are huge. It pulled $178.9 million overseas, which is exactly what Fox needs to make the $105 million picture a box office success. If the foreign returns remain strong, we’re bound to see a sixth one of these.

The big screen revival of British TVs ‘Absolutely Fabulous‘ didn’t make it into the Top 10, but still saw decent returns. From 313 locations, the Fox Searchlight picture made $1.8 million and a per-screen average of $6,006.

Top 10:

1. ‘Star Trek Beyond’ (Paramount) – $59,600,000

2. ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ (Universal) – $29,330,000

3. ‘Ghostbusters’ (Sony) – $21,600,000

4. ‘Lights Out’ (Warner Bros.) – $21,600,000

5. ‘Ice Age: Collision Course’ (Fox) – $21,000,000

6. ‘Finding Dory’ (Buena Vista) – $7,220,000

7. ‘The Legend of Tarzan’ (Warner Bros.) – $6,430,000

8. ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ (Fox) – $4,400,000

9. ‘Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party’ (Quality Flix) – $3,700,000

10. ‘The Infiltrator’ (Broad Green) – $3,293,840

1 comment

  1. Timcharger

    Luke: “On the flip side, now a few weeks in, the movie’s (Ice Age: Collision Course) international returns are huge. It pulled $178.9 million overseas…”

    Does the movie have a Chinese prehistoric creature?
    If not, bet the next sequel does.

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