Weekend Projections: ‘Suicide Squad’ ($20M) & ‘Sausage Party’ ($16.4M) Set to Lead Again; ‘War Dogs’ ($15M) & ‘Kubo’ ($12.5M) Solid; ‘Ben-Hur’ Derails ($12M)

Saturday Update: Boxoffice’s initial weekend estimates based on official Friday estimates are below. Check back tomorrow for complete studio estimates and further analysis.

WIDE (1000+)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Suicide Squad $20,000,000 -54% 3,924 -331 $5,097 $261,573,335 3 Warner Bros.
2 Sausage Party $16,400,000 -52% 3,103 0 $5,285 $66,401,019 2 Sony / Columbia
3 War Dogs $15,000,000 3,258 $4,604 $15,000,000 1 Warner Bros.
4 Kubo and the Two Strings $12,500,000 3,260 $3,834 $12,500,000 1 Focus
5 Ben-Hur (2016) $12,000,000 3,084 $3,891 $12,000,000 1 Paramount
6 Pete’s Dragon (2016) $10,600,000 -51% 3,702 0 $2,863 $42,161,269 2 Disney
7 Bad Moms $8,100,000 -29% 2,811 -377 $2,882 $85,832,428 4 STX Entertainment
8 Jason Bourne $8,000,000 -42% 2,887 -641 $2,771 $140,903,285 4 Universal
9 The Secret Life of Pets $5,400,000 -40% 2,404 -554 $2,246 $346,352,030 7 Universal
10 Florence Foster Jenkins $4,300,000 -35% 1,528 0 $2,814 $14,405,743 2 Paramount
11 Star Trek Beyond $4,100,000 -41% 1,966 -611 $2,085 $147,031,370 5 Paramount
12 Nine Lives (2016) $1,200,000 -66% 1,364 -900 $880 $16,854,024 3 EuropaCorp Films

LIMITED (100 — 999)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Hell or High Water $2,400,000 286% 472 440 $5,085 $3,277,687 2 CBS Films / Lionsgate
2 Nerve $1,190,000 -55% 859 -918 $1,385 $35,793,065 4 Lionsgate
3 Ghostbusters (2016) $1,100,000 -52% 788 -649 $1,396 $123,960,434 6 Sony / Columbia
4 Finding Dory $890,000 -32% 450 -181 $1,978 $478,419,164 10 Disney
5 Ice Age: Collision Course $830,000 -60% 782 -766 $1,061 $60,758,290 5 Fox
6 Cafe Society $500,000 -47% 271 -184 $1,845 $9,411,665 6 Lionsgate / Amazon

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Friday Update: War Dogs rang up an estimated $1.25 million from Thursday’s opening night shows, according to Warner Bros. That handily tops the $700,000 by the studio’s own The Nice Guys back in May, while edging out the $1.25 million of Let’s Be Cops (opening on a Tuesday night) in August 2014.

Paramount’s Ben-Hur grabbed an estimated $900,000, which comes in ahead of the $452,000 earned by Gods of Egypt earlier this year. Still, for a previously established property with most of its target audience coming from older demographics, it will be an interesting weekend to follow.

Meanwhile, Laika Animation’s Kubo and the Two Strings earned $515,000 last night, a strong start for an original stop-motion animated property.

For the weekend, it is widely expected that Suicide Squad will retain the first place position, while Sausage Party could battle it out with any of the three openers (likely War Dogs) for second place.

Official Friday estimates from the studios and our initial weekend estimates will be published Saturday morning.