Weekend Box Office (June 17 - 19, 2016)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND Disney retook pole position at the box office for the 11th weekend this year (out of 25) as its sequel Finding Dory crushed a few box office records in its debut. Fellow newcomer Central Intelligence also did well while all three sophomore titles sunk like a stone.

Continuing their hot 2016, Disney*Pixar's Finding Dory served up a new opening weekend record for an animated film taking in an estimated $136.2M this weekend from 4,305 theaters for a per screen average of $31,634. Throw in an opening day take of $54.9M (including $9.2M from Thursday evening) and Dory set three records this weekend, beating out 2007's Shrek the Third on all counts ($121.6M opening/$29,507 avg/$47M opening day).

For the Mouse House it marks the third $100M+ opening weekend following the $103M opening of The Jungle Book and the $179M opening of Captain America: Civil War. Right now Disney has three films in the top 10 and five in the top 15. Those five films have grossed a combined $1.3B so far. Dory looks to become the studio's latest billion dollar film as it opened to an estimated $50M internationally (with China's $17.5M leading the way) for a worldwide total of $186.2M.

Featuring the comedy stylings of Kevin Hart and the muscles of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Central Intelligence opened to an estimated $34.5M from 3,508 theaters for a per screen average of $9,835. For Hart the opening is in line with his previous films. Earlier this year Ride Along 2 opened to $35M while 2015's Get Hard opened to $33M. Both of those films ended in the $90M range. For Johnson, the film is in the middle range of his normal openings but if you take out franchise flicks and focus on more original stories like this one, it's right in line with what you might expect. With an A- CinemaScore and above average reviews there's no reason this film can't hit the $100M mark and spark a sequel in a couple of years.

A trio of films in their second weekend followed, all with miserable drops. Third place belonged to the horror sequel The Conjuring 2 which dropped 61.5% from its debut to an estimated $15.5M, bringing its total up to $71.7M. The original dropped 47% in its second weekend on its way to a $137.4M finale. With more of its audience coming out up front Conjuring 2 should still cross the $100M mark but not go too much far past it.

In fourth place was another sequel, Now You See Me 2 which had the best hold out of the trio, slipping 57% to an estimated $9.65M, bringing its cume up to $41.3M. The original fell a slimmer 35% in its second weekend on its way to a $117.7M total. Look for Part 2 to end up in the $60-65M range with international grosses being its only hope for a possible end to a trilogy.

The enigma of the summer, Warcraft was crushed in its second weekend falling an almost record-breaking 73% to an estimated $6.5M bringing its total to $37M. A miserable total for a film with an estimated budget of $160M. And yet internationally it stands at $377.6M with over half of that coming from China alone. Look for a final domestic total of around $50-55M,

A couple of different types of superheroes followed with X-Men: Apocalypse landing in sixth place with an estimated $5.21M bringing its total to $146M, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows following close behind in seventh place with an estimated $5.2M bringing its total up to $72M. Eighth place belonged to the romantic drama Me Before You which had the best hold in the top 10, falling 36% in its third weekend to an estimated $4.1M bringing its cume up to $46M.

Disney rounded out the top 10 with two widely different performing films. In ninth place was the extremely disappointing Alice Through the Looking Glass which made $3.6M, according to estimates, bringing its total to only $69M. The original was at $265M at the same point in its cycle. Rounding out the top 10 was the number one movie of the year (so far) Captain America: Civil War, which took in an estimated $2.3M bringing its total up to $401.2M, becoming the 23rd film to reach the $400M plateau and putting it currently at #22 on the all-time list. By next weekend it could easily jump into the top 20.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $222.8M which was down 6.6% from last year when Jurassic World held on to number one with $106.6M; and up 64% from 2014 when Think Like A Man Too debuted in the top spot with $29M.


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Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures and again on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Independence Day: Resurgence, The Shallows , Free State of Jones and The Neon Demonry all open.

THIS WEEKEND's TOP 10

Last Updated: June 19, 2016 at 2:15PM ET

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