Weekend Box Office (July 29 - 31, 2016)

by Gitesh Pandya

THIS WEEKEND The nine-year wait was over for Matt Damon fans as his hotly anticipated action sequel Jason Bourne debuted at number one at the North American box office with $59.2M, according to final studio figures, grossing more than the next two films combined. Universal averaged a sturdy $14,708 from 4,026 locations and enjoyed its fourth top spot debut of the year.

Jason Bourne is the third film in the franchise to be directed by Paul Greengrass, fourth to star Damon, and fifth installment overall across fourteen years. In terms of opening weekend performance, it ranked second best in gross behind the $69.3M of 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum which was the last chapter from the Damon-Greengrass team. It ranked third out of the four Damon films in terms of tickets sold behind Ultimatum and 2004's The Bourne Supremacy.

But given how this sequel-heavy summer has been going, Bourne delivered the third largest opening weekend for any live-action film behind May's Captain America and X-Men sequels, and was just a hair ahead of last weekend's Star Trek Beyond. Damon's latest also beat out the $55.5M opening this same weekend last year of Tom Cruise's fifth spy pic Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation which went on to enjoy a healthy summer run ending at $195M.

Bourne earned a solid A- grade from CinemaScore and reviews from critics were mostly mixed. Studio data showed that males made up 55% of the audience and 60% were 35 and older. Ethnic appeal was good too with 44% of the business coming from non-whites.

46 international markets also opened this weekend, one week ahead of the Rio Olympics, and grabbed an estimated $50.1M for a global launch of $110M. Top performers were Korea with $11.2M over five days and the U.K. with $10.2M across three days. Bourne will invade China, Mexico, and Russia after the Olympics.

With another action sequel entering the marketplace distracting adult men, Star Trek Beyond tumbled out of first place falling 58% to $24.8M. The sophomore drop was exactly in line with past number one hits this summer like the Captain America and Ninja Turtles sequels. Beyond has grossed $106.5M through its second weekend and may end its mission with about $150-160M falling behind its two predecessors which each did over $225M.

Overseas, Star Trek Beyond took in an estimated $13M this weekend from 40 markets with the U.K. being the only one to reach a double digit cume so far. Seven of the top 11 markets have yet to open with many waiting until after the Summer Olympics. The international cume of $54.8M puts the third Trek at $160M worldwide.

The raunchy comedy Bad Moms delivered a strong opening weekend in third place with $23.8M from 3,215 locations for a solid $7,408 average. Adult women and mothers were the driving force for the R-rated pic as audience data showed that the crowd was 82% female. With plenty of starpower coming from a cast that included Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Christina Applegate and Jada Pinkett Smith, plus generally positive reviews from critics and funny trailers, Bad Moms served as effective counter-programming to summer's steady diet of testosterone-filled action sequels.

Produced for only $20M, and earning a glowing A CinemaScore grade, the STX release is sure to end up being a moneymaker. Weekend sales were very frontloaded, however, with Saturday dropping a steep 19% from Friday's opening day take. Last July's female-skewing R-rated comedy hit Trainwreck was up 3% on Saturday and had more appeal to the date crowd.

Holding up well in its fourth weekend was the hit toon The Secret Life of Pets with $18.9M, down 36%, for a new domestic total of $296.9M. The Universal smash will soon become the third animated movie of 2016 to cross $300M joining Zootopia and Finding Dory, both from the Disney camp. Also in the triple century club is The Jungle Book which features all but one of its characters being computer animated. Worldwide, Pets sits at $395M. Horror pic Lights Out dipped a reasonable 50% in its sophomore session to $10.8M putting Warner Bros. at $42.9M to date. The $5M production should end with a robust $60M or so.

Older movie brands saw half of their sales disappear this weekend. Franchise toon Ice Age: Collision Course fell 49% to $11M giving Fox just $42.6M on its way to the $70M range in the end. It may gross seven to eight times that amount from international markets though. Global is now $254M with 83% from overseas. Sony's pricey Ghostbusters collected $10.1M, off 52%, for a new cume of $106.5M. Final may reach the $130M range.

It's been a great summer for fright films and thrillers with high grosses coming from films with low production costs. Another arrived this weekend in the form of the teen thriller Nerve which debuted on Wednesday and collected $15.5M over five days including $9.4M over the weekend period. The PG-13 Lionsgate release averaged $3,722 from 2,538 locations over the three-day period which was good for a pic with a mid-week launch. Reviews were mixed but ticket-buyers were pleased giving it an A- CinemaScore grade which is quite positive for a scary movie.

Finding Dory, the year's biggest domestic blockbuster, followed with $4.3M in its seventh round dipping 40% and pushing the cume to $469.1M. The global tally stands at $830M led by China's $38.4M. That is not too high of a gross there as Dory is not even one of China's top-grossing animated films this year. Angry Birds has done nearly twice as much there. Rounding out the top ten was The Legend of Tarzan with $2.5M, tumbling 63%, for a total of $121.9M domestic and $309M worldwide for Warner Bros.

The top ten films grossed $174.9M which was up 28% from last year when Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation opened at number one with $55.5M; and up 4% from 2014 when Guardians of the Galaxy opened in the top spot with an August record $94.3M.


Compared to projections, Jason Bourne opened a little higher than my $57M forecast while Bad Moms and Nerve were on target with my $23M and $10M predictions, respectively.

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Watch the trailer for Wonder Woman.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Suicide Squad and Nine Lives open.

# Title Jul 29 - 31 Jul 22 - 24 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Jason Bourne $ 59,215,365 4,026 1 $ 14,708 $ 59,215,365 Universal
2 Star Trek Beyond 24,754,339 59,253,211 -58.2 3,928 2 6,302 106,474,717 Paramount
3 Bad Moms 23,817,340 3,215 1 7,408 23,817,340 STX
4 The Secret Life of Pets 18,915,140 29,607,210 -36.1 3,677 4 5,144 296,882,885 Universal
5 Ice Age: Collision Course 10,988,839 21,373,064 -48.6 3,997 2 2,749 42,598,462 Fox
6 Lights Out 10,803,331 21,688,103 -50.2 2,835 2 3,811 42,870,363 Warner Bros.
7 Ghostbusters 10,125,735 21,009,831 -51.8 3,052 3 3,318 106,497,206 Sony
8 Nerve 9,445,456 2,538 1 3,722 15,496,743 Lionsgate
9 Finding Dory 4,322,747 7,234,806 -40.3 1,733 7 2,494 469,115,677 Disney
10 The Legend of Tarzan 2,467,018 6,576,417 -62.5 1,503 5 1,641 121,918,228 Warner Bros.
11 Hillary's America 2,456,526 3,964,646 -38.0 1,066 3 2,304 8,746,910 Quality/D'Souza
12 Cafe Society 2,333,300 849,937 174.5 565 3 4,130 3,990,260 Lionsgate
13 Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates 1,452,957 4,385,285 -66.9 1,070 4 1,358 43,990,069 Fox
14 Captain Fantastic 1,061,090 597,845 77.5 550 4 1,929 2,462,869 Bleecker Street
15 Central Intelligence 907,215 2,820,284 -67.8 652 7 1,391 125,300,228 Warner Bros.
16 The Infiltrator 856,589 3,328,382 -74.3 650 3 1,318 14,387,490 Broad Green
17 Absolutely Fabulous 830,254 1,861,118 -55.4 355 2 2,339 3,396,822 Fox Searchlight
18 The Purge: Election Year 739,375 2,379,900 -68.9 510 5 1,450 78,392,445 Universal
19 The BFG 458,064 1,012,646 -54.8 273 5 1,678 52,146,349 Disney
20 Dishoom 442,299 113 1 3,914 442,299 Eros
Top 5 $ 137,691,023 $ 152,931,419 -10.0
Top 10 174,855,310 178,420,955 -2.0
Top 20 186,392,979 192,040,763 -2.9
Top 10 vs. 2015 186,392,979 143,325,271 30.0

Last Updated: July 31, 2016 at 2:40PM ET

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