‘Don’t Breathe’ scares off rivals
Low-budget thriller takes the top spot at weekend box office, dropping “Suicide Squad” into second. E3
Breathing life into what was expected to be a slow end to the summer box-office season, Sony Pictures’ “Don’t Breathe” overperformed, leaving the threetime box-office champ, Warner Bros.’ “Suicide Squad,” in the dust.
The low-budget horror movie raked in a surprising estimated $26.1 million in the U.S. and Canada, easily surpassing analyst projections of $12 million to $14 million.
The violent thriller about friends whose home-invasion plot goes horribly wrong stars Stephen Lang, Jane Levy and Dylan Minnette, among others. The $9.8-million flick is the latest financial success for Uruguay-born writer-director Fede Alvarez, best known for 2013’s “Evil Dead" remake. Alvarez has been in high demand in Hollywood since he was discovered through a short film uploaded to YouTube in 2009.
Audiences and movie critics appear pleased. Moviegoers gave the picture an overall B-plus CinemaScore (A-minus from the under 35 crowd), while 87% of Rotten Tomatoes critics rated the film positively.
“Suicide Squad” dropped to second place with $12.1 million in its fourth week, still meeting analyst expectations, which were at $12 million this week. The DC antihero mashup, after receiving relatively poor reviews, has taken in $282.9 million domestically. Internationally, the picture has brought in an estimated $353.1 million.
Landing in third was “Kubo and the Two Strings,” from Laika and Focus Features, with $7.9 million.
Sony’s “Sausage Party” continues to be a big hit , landing in fourth in its third week with an estimated $7.7 million. The $19-million film has already made back more than four times its price with a domestic gross to date of $80 million.
The only other major release, Lionsgate’s “Mechanic: Resurrection,” took fifth with an estimated $7.5 million. Though meeting analyst expectations of $6 million to $8 million, the film should prove to be a major success for the studio when factoring in projections on the home entertainment front and its U.K. release.
In limited release was “Hands of Stone” from Weinstein Co. The boxing drama pulled in an estimated $1.7 million from a midlevel release of about 800 theaters, well below projections of under $6 million.
Up next to premiere Labor Day weekend is Disney’s “The Light Between Oceans.”