Biff Bam Pop maestro Andy Burns is having a blast at Fan Expo (see J.P. Fallavolita’s essential strategy guide to Fan Expo survival). So I’m tackling the weekend box office predictions this time around. On Friday, I posed the question could Suicide Squad crawl back on top during the slow Labour Day weekend? My guess was no, betting that the horror flick Don’t Breathe would top the weekend, as well as Suicide Squad. So how did I do?
I did pretty good is the answer. But not great. There were a couple of hard to pin down debuts in the mix. The period romance The Light Between Oceans and the sci-fi horror flick Morgan both underperformed significantly. So my picks:
- Don’t Breathe – $15 million
- Suicide Squad – $10 million
- Morgan – $8 million
- The Light Between Oceans – $7 million
- Sausage Party – $5 million
And here’s what happened:
- Don’t Breathe – $15 million
- Suicide Squad – $10 million
- Pete’s Dragon – $6.5 million
- Kubo and the Two Strings – $6.5 million
- Sausage Party – $5 million
So I nailed three of five. But those pesky debuts really suckered me. The Light Between Oceans just missed $5 million. And Ridley Scott’s son Luke whiffed badly with his feature debut. Morgan pulled in a paltry $2 million. Guess the artificial girl with powers genre is already getting played out.
Suicide Squad’s $10 million pushed it toward $672 million, still $100 million shy of Guardians of the Galaxy‘s performance. It’s got the rest of the year, but I don’t think it’s gonna make it. No pressure, Wonder Woman. You got this.
The kids’ flicks had the real staying power. With strong word-of-mouth and critical raves, both Pete’s Dragon and Kubo and the Two Strings scored solid showings.
Tom Hanks has the big debut next week, landing a plane on the Hudson River courtesy of director Clint Eastwood in Sully. As if!
