'Don't Breathe' finishes on top at Labor Day weekend box office
The summer months are now over, and September's first weekend at the domestic box office has an apparent winner: Don't Breathe.
The horror-thriller is expected to earn an estimated $15.7 million from Friday to Sunday, and then climb to around $19 million by the end of Monday's Labor Day holiday. As of Sunday, its estimated two-week total is $51.1 million.
The figure is all the more impressive considering Don't Breathe's estimated $10 million budget. The Fede Alvarez-directed home invasion flick was already in the black after its opening weekend. And it's likely still got a few decent weeks ahead, given the low 41 percent audience drop in its second weekend.
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Trailing behind and still hanging on is Suicide Squad, the DC Comics-verse anti-hero story that has weathered poor reviews from critics and moviegoers in its march to $651.1 million at the global box office.
That figure includes the estimated $10 million earned by Suicide in the U.S. from Friday to Sunday, bringing its total domestic take up to $297.4 million.
Whatever you may think of Warner Bros. DC Comics-sourced efforts so far, Suicide Squad is the eight-highest grossing film of the year and Batman v Superman -- released in March -- is the fifth-highest. The question that WB must now face: Will fans that feel burned by these films come back for more in 2017 and beyond?
If there's anything else noteworthy about this first box office weekend for September, it's the near-invisibility of the week's new releases. The summer's big blockbusters tend to taper off quickly after the start of August, as marketing machines power down around less-hyped newcomers.
Disney's romantic drama The Light Between Oceans earned the most in what is likely a counter-programming win. Its current estimate of $5 million from Friday to Sunday settles in at the #6 spot, though the back half of the box office top 10 is in a close enough race that anything could change by Tuesday.
Falling well outside the top 10, Lionsgate's Spanish-language comedy No manches Frida picked up an estimated $3.7 million. That's actually a great start for this niche offering, given that it's only playing in 362 locations.
Frida provides a fascinating counterpoint to Morgan, a sci-fi thriller from Fox that opened in more than 2,000 theaters.
Where the foreign language comedy had the highest per-theater average of the weekend -- more than $10,000 per location -- Morgan had the lowest among new releases: an estimated $2 million total from Friday to Sunday, or just under $1,000 per theater. Ouch.
It's not an unmitigated disaster for Fox, which kept Morgan on a lean estimated budget of $8 million. But it's an unimpressive start to say the least, especially for a movie whose week-of-release trailer was created by artificial intelligence.
Topics Film
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
