Weekend box office: Ben-Hur and War Dogs are no match for Suicide Squad
BEN-HUR is going to be one of those movies that everyone in Hollywood will sit around and try to figure out what went wrong. With a budget over $100 million and taking in barely $11 million at the weekend box office, this is yet another flop during the dreadful summer of 2016. But the thing that irks me and most people that really love movies is that BEN-HUR never really had a chance and it should have been obvious the moment someone said “let’s remake BEN-HUR”. The original has its place, but the story has been done many times before (GLADIATOR) and no one wanted another remake. This has nothing to do with it being more faith-based or lacking star power, this was never something anyone wanted. In fact, $11 million is more than I thought it would make. There were two other new movies that did much better. The first was the Jonah Hill, Miles Teller action-comedy WAR DOGS, which got good reviews and the animated KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS, which got great reviews.
Next week marks the end of the summer movie season and it’s clear Hollywood doesn’t want to go out with a bang. First is MECHANIC RESURRECTION starring Jason Statham. The original film opened with $11 million and went on to gross $29 million, so I’m not sure why that merited a sequel. I’m guessing it did better on home video, which is probably where Resurrection should have gone. The other new movie is the horror film DON’T BREATHE. While I’m not the biggest horror fan out there, I do think the trailers for DON’T BREATHE make it look interesting. But I’m guessing SUICIDE SQUAD will make it four in a row. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. Suicide Squad $19.3m
2. Sausage Party $14.7m
3. War Dogs $14.5m
4. Kubo and the Two Strings $12.6m
5. Ben-Hur $11.5m
6. Pete’s Dragon $10.9m
7. Jason Bourne $7.2m
8. Bad Moms $7.1m
9. The Secret Life of Pets $5.6m
10. Florence Foster Jenkins $4.3m
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