Warner Bros./DC’s Suicide Squad took a deep nosedive in its second weekend of release while Seth Rogen and Sony’s raunchy Sausage Party became the highest-grossing animated release ever for August and Disney’s Pete’s Dragon remake stumbled out of the gate at the box office this weekend.
Suicide Squad topped all newcomers in its second weekend of release, taking in an estimated $43.8 million for another first-place finish. But the DC super-villain caper plummeted 67 percent in its second weekend, only slightly better than the 69 percent drop suffered by Batman v. Superman in March.
That means the film’s punishing reviews (27 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and tepid B+ CinemaScore) have finally caught up to it. Still, with a $222.8 million domestic take and another $243 million overseas for a global total of $465 million in its first 12 days of release, the film still has a shot at crossing the $1 billion mark. Now, all Warner Bros. has to do is find a way to make their superhero movies good. They’ll have a couple more chances with next year’s Wonder Woman and Justice League.
In second place, Sony/Annapurna’s Sausage Party opened to an estimated $33.6 million at 3,103 locations, stealing some of Suicide Squad‘s business on its way to becoming the highest-grossing animated movie ever in August (beating Disney’s 2013 movie Planes).
The film took some heat from social justice warriors who said the humor relied too heavily on racist stereotypes. That may have pushed the box office a bit higher as curious fans went to see what all the fuss was about.
Either way, the result couldn’t have come at a better time for Sony, still reeling from a flop-filled summer that included such non-hits as Ghostbusters and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Sausage Party reportedly cost just $19 million to make. The raunchy R-rated film stars Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader and James Franco as talking supermarket foods who struggle to find the meaning of their existence. The film currently sits at 82 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a so-so B CinemaScore.
Meanwhile, Disney’s Pete’s Dragon opened in third place to $21.5 million from 3,702 theaters. The remake of the 1977 family film about a boy who befriends a giant green dragon was the best-reviewed film of the weekend, earning an A CinemaScore and an 86 percent rating on RottenTomatoes. Positive word-of-mouth and overseas receipts could carry the $65 million film over the coming weeks. The PG-rated movie stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford and Karl Urban.
The weekend’s other new release, Meryl Streep vehicle Florence Foster Jenkins, brought in an estimated $6.6 million from 1,528 locations. The film stars Streep as a wannabe opera singer who happens to have a terrible singing voice. Paramount is hoping for some awards-season love for the film, which also stars Hugh Grant and Rebecca Ferguson.
Universal’s Jason Bourne and STX’s Bad Moms rounded out the top five with $13.6 million and $11.4 million, respectively.
At the specialty box office, WWII thriller Anthropoid earned an estimated $1.2 million from just under 500 theaters and the Jeff Bridges-Chris Pine bank heist Western Hell or High Water took in $592,000 from just 32 locations for an eye-popping $18,500 per-theater average.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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