During the weekend, there was no layover for Sully as it once again reigned atop the box office. With an estimated gross of $22 million, Sully repeats and the Tom Hanks/Clint Eastwood collaboration left the competition back at the airport. All three of the new films released during the weekend under-performed and earned less than $10 million. Nevertheless, Sully has earned $94 million worldwide since its release on September 9th. Domestically, Sully has a gross of $70 million but this weekend wasn’t enough to salvage the baggage of the competition.
Second place was claimed by Blair Witch, which is nothing short of a disappointment for the distributors. Estimators were expecting the film to gross upwards of $20 million but the actual number were nearly half of that. Not only was the movie a box office disappointment, it didn’t fare much better with audiences. Both audience ratings on Cinemascore and Rotten Tomatoes were less than favorable, especially compared to the 1999 game-changing predecessor. Although the production budget is only estimated at roughly $5 million, the Comic-Con hype for Blair Witch didn’t transition as hoped.
Coming in third this weekend was Bridget Jones’s Baby, the third installment in the franchise. Starring Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth, the movie made just over $8 million. Compared to its most recent predecessor, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, this is the lowest initial opening of the series. Much like Blair Witch, an argument could be made that it’s been too long to warrant interest in a new sequel. After all, it’s been over a decade since The Edge of Reason was released in theaters. It has yet to be released in a few other markets so it remains to be seen if it will earn more.
Snowden, the latest from director Oliver Stone, came in fourth place this weekend with exactly $8 million. Starring an all-star cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zachary Quinto, and Rhys Ifans, it finished just short of the studio’s hopes for a $10 million weekend. Fifth place was held by mainstay Don’t Breathe, which made another $5.6 million. Based on its total domestic gross of $75 million on a mere $10 million budget, the film is an unquestionable success for the director and crew.
This upcoming weekend will mark the release of Antoine Fuqua’s star-studded remake of The Magnificent Seven as well as the animated Storks. Will Denzel Washington and company shoot their way to the top spot? We’ll have to wait and see.
