Studio Weekend Estimates: ‘Suicide Squad’ Repeats On Top w/ $43.7M; ‘Sausage Party’ Brings Home the Bacon w/ $33.6M; ‘Pete’s Dragon’ Fails To Fly w/ $21.5M

Warner Bros.’ superhero blockbuster Suicide Squad plummeted in its second outing following its smash opening last weekend, but still held onto the top spot at the box office. Sony’s R-rated animated comedy Sausage Party was a hot dog at the box office in second place, while Disney’s Pete’s Dragon didn’t soar as much as hoped with a third place debut.

Huge opening weekends often result in superhero films posting among of the highest second-weekend declines of any genres besides horror movies, but Suicide Squad‘s terrible reviews and poor word of mouth resulted in a sharp 67.2 percent second-weekend drop to an estimated $43.77 million. That’s a higher second-weekend drop than for almost any other comparable superhero movie this year — 67.2 percent versus 59.5 percent for Captain America: Civil War, 65.3 percent for X-Men: Apocalypse, and 57.4 percent for Deadpool. It was also higher than the 55.3 percent second-weekend drop for the film with the previous record-best August opening, fellow superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014.

Deadpool may be the most apt comparison here, as a similarly “darkly funny” superhero film with a relatively little-known protagonist outside the comic fandom, at least compared to such household names as Batman or Superman. Suicide Squad debuted with an almost-identical opening weekend, coming in less than one percent ahead of Deadpool‘s opening back in February. But Deadpool‘s rave reviews pushed it to a second weekend that came in about 22.4 percent above Deadpool‘s second frame.

Sony’s R-rated animated comedy Sausage Party was a hot dog at the box office with an estimated $33.60 million start. The raunchy movie written by Seth Rogen and starring the voices of Rogen and Kristen Wiig, about talking food products in a supermarket who hatch a plan to avoid being eaten by the human customers,took second place at the box office. Among similar animated films not aimed at a family audience — not that there have been many — it debuted at more than double the inflation-adjusted opening of Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights in 2002 and about 73.8 percent ahead of the inflation-adjusted opening of 1999’s South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.

Sausage Party started with an estimated $13.5 million on Friday, actually coming in slightly ahead of Suicide Squad, though that lead was not to last over the course of the entire weekend. It dropped 15.5 percent to an estimated $11.4 million on Saturday and another 23.6 percent to $8.7 million on Sunday. That gives it an estimated opening weekend to Friday ratio of 2.48 to 1.

Disney’s Pete’s Dragon flapped its wings to third place with an estimated $21.50 million, an uncommon miss for Disney this year after producing four of the five highest grossing films of the year to date. The fantasy live-action remake stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, and relative newcomer Oakes Fegley as title character Pete earned an A CinemaScore and an 85 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes off an audience composed of 66 percent families. Its opening weekend was significantly behind other recent remakes of classic Disney properties such as The Jungle BookCinderella, or Maleficent, though to be fair the original 1977 film wasn’t nearly as legendary as those other properties.

The movie started with $6.95 million on Friday, earned a rarely-seen Saturday increase of 20.3 percent to $8.36 million, and declined 26.1 percent to $6.17 million on Sunday. This gives the film an opening weekend to Friday ratio of 3.09 to 1. To put that in perspective, a ratio above 3 to 1 is highly uncommon for a mainstream wide release above 3,000 theaters or so, which could potentially bode well for the film’s word mouth and grosses over the next few weekends to come.

Paramount’s Florence Foster Jenkins hit a low note with an estimated $6.58 million eighth place opening. The plot about a singer in the 1940’s who some consider to be the worst singer of all time was never destined to be box office gold, especially being released during the crowded summer season and in less than half the theaters of Sausage Party and Pete’s Dragon. Still, Meryl Streep has also starred in mid-August releases the past two years, and Florence opens a hair behind last year’s underwhelming Ricki and the Flash and 46.5 percent behind the opening of August 2014’s disappointment The Giver.

Florence received an A- CinemaScore and 86 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, from a tremendously skewed audience that was 97 percent over age 25. The movie started with $2.08 million on Friday, increased 27.4 percent to $2.65 million on Saturday, and declined 30.1 percent to $1.85 million on Sunday. This gives the film an estimated opening weekend to Friday ratio of 3.16 to 1. Both that impressive ratio and its older crowd — a demographic that tends to not rush into seeing films on their opening — means Florence could still become a moderate sleeper hit yet.

Universal’s Jason Bourne came in fourth place with an estimated $13.62 million. Interestingly, even though this installment saw a higher second-weekend percentage drop than either of its two predecessors, its 39.2 percent third-weekend drop was actually lower than the 39.6 percent for The Bourne Ultimatum or 40.5 percent for The Bourne Supremacy. With $126.78 million through its third weekend, Jason Bourne is still running 23.0 percent behind 2007’s Ultimatum through the same point (and even further behind when adjusting Ultimatum for inflation) and only 1.7 percent ahead of 2004’s Supremacy even without adjusting for inflation (and about 27.0 percent behind if adjusted).

STX Entertainment’s Bad Moms took fifth place with an estimated $11.45 million. Its incredibly mild 18.2 percent third-weekend decline was unforeseen by almost every box office analyst after a 41.2 percent second-weekend drop. The movie has earned $71.46 million through three weekends.

The top 12 films made this weekend made an estimated $157,846,000 total. That’s 28.6 percent behind last weekend and 16.1 percent ahead of the same weekend last year, when Straight Outta Compton led the box office.

Overseas Update:

Suicide Squad maintained its overseas dominance with an estimated $58.7 million, down 56.0 percent, in 62 markets. With $242.5 million overseas to date, it has now earned $465.3 million globally through only two weekends.

The Secret Life of Pets, though starting to fade domestically with its first weekend outside the top five, continues its huge run overseas with an estimated $40.0 million overseas weekend, a 42.3 percent decline, in 47 markets. With $256.7 million overseas to date, the film has earned $592.6 million globally.

Jason Bourne also declined a negligible 7.5 percent to an estimated $18.6 million overseas weekend in 59 markets. With $119.4 million overseas, it’s earned $246.2 million globally.

Studio Weekend Estimates for Friday, August 12 – Sunday, August 14, 2016:

WIDE (1000+)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Suicide Squad $43,770,000 -67% 4,255 0 $10,287 $222,874,728 2 Warner Bros.
2 Sausage Party $33,600,000 3,103 $10,828 $33,600,000 1 Sony / Columbia
3 Pete’s Dragon (2016) $21,501,000 3,702 $5,808 $21,501,000 1 Disney
4 Jason Bourne $13,620,000 -39% 3,528 -511 $3,861 $126,782,345 3 Universal
5 Bad Moms $11,450,000 -18% 3,188 -27 $3,592 $34,614,463 3 STX Entertainment
6 The Secret Life of Pets $8,840,000 -23% 2,958 -459 $2,989 $335,942,075 6 Universal
7 Star Trek Beyond $6,800,000 -32% 2,577 -686 $2,639 $139,679,949 4 Paramount
8 Florence Foster Jenkins $6,580,000 1,528 $4,306 $6,580,000 1 Paramount
9 Nine Lives (2016) $3,500,000 -44% 2,264 0 $1,546 $13,550,825 2 EuropaCorp Films
10 Lights Out $3,220,000 -46% 1,652 -929 $1,949 $61,134,818 4 Warner Bros. / New Line
11 Nerve $2,650,000 -45% 1,777 -761 $1,491 $33,098,395 3 Lionsgate
12 Ghostbusters (2016) $2,315,000 -50% 1,437 -1108 $1,611 $121,724,002 5 Sony / Columbia
13 Ice Age: Collision Course $2,020,000 -53% 1,548 -1190 $1,305 $58,693,271 4 Fox

LIMITED (100 — 999)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Finding Dory $1,402,000 -28% 631 -491 $2,222 $476,815,060 9 Disney
2 Anthropoid $1,213,043 452 $2,684 $1,213,043 1 Bleecker Street
3 Cafe Society $910,000 -43% 455 -176 $2,000 $8,453,186 5 Lionsgate / Amazon
4 Captain Fantastic $356,058 -39% 175 -188 $2,035 $4,281,535 6 Bleecker Street
5 Hillary’s America – The Secret History of the Democratic Party $307,000 -67% 327 -345 $939 $11,997,471 5 D’Souza EntertainmentQuality Flix
6 The BFG $270,000 -9% 193 -41 $1,399 $53,300,538 7 Disney / DreamWorks
7 Hunt for the Wilderpeople $210,450 -37% 140 -36 $1,503 $3,873,571 8 The Orchard
8 The Jungle Book (2016) $204,000 -6% 186 -14 $1,097 $363,004,566 18 Disney
9 Captain America: Civil War $174,000 -16% 162 -12 $1,074 $407,502,783 15 Disney
10 Independence Day: Resurgence $150,000 -19% 156 -9 $962 $102,556,957 8 Fox
11 Gleason $131,322 17% 148 79 $887 $447,413 3 Open Road / Amazon
12 Now You See Me 2 $120,000 134% 151 66 $795 $64,843,449 10 Lionsgate / Summit
13 Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates $105,000 -62% 139 -158 $755 $45,377,453 6 Fox
14 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows $100,000 -26% 117 -24 $855 $81,812,726 11 Paramount

PLATFORM (1 — 99)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Hell or High Water $592,000 32 $18,500 $592,000 1 CBS Films / Lionsgate
2 Don’t Think Twice $367,500 -2% 70 13 $5,250 $1,212,772 4 The Film Arcade
3 Equity $143,706 164% 30 26 $4,790 $343,055 3 Sony Pictures Classics
4 Train To Busan $131,500 -31% 28 -8 $4,696 $1,354,427 4 Inc. Well Go USA
5 Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie $122,000 -63% 91 -135 $1,341 $4,459,686 4 Fox Searchlight
6 Alice Through the Looking Glass $54,000 -43% 86 -40 $628 $76,966,804 12 Disney
7 The Innocents $24,000 -64% 30 -19 $800 $910,986 7 Music Box Films
8 The Music of Strangers $13,811 -35% 21 -16 $658 $1,083,190 10
9 Disorder $12,000 2 $6,000 $12,000 1 IFC Films / Sundance Selects
10 Ghost Team $9,205 10 $921 $9,205 1 The Orchard
11 The Lost Arcade $7,500 1 $7,500 $7,500 1 26 Aries
12 Miss Sharon Jones! $6,759 -22% 6 4 $1,127 $36,187 3 Starz Digital
13 Life, Animated $5,700 -57% 23 -13 $248 $210,288 7 The Orchard

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