Monday Box Office Report – Tom Hanks’ Sully makes a big splash

Tom Hanks may be one of the most beloved American actors of all times, but it’s been nearly a decade since a live action movie he’s starred in has opened big at the box office. Ironically, it’s taken a movie about a real life character making a big splash on landing for him to achieve the same. The Clint Eastwood directed Sully, which tells the true story of how Hanks’ airline pilot Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger, managed to execute an emergency water landing of a disabled Airbus A320 on New York’s Hudson River, stuck its own landing this weekend past as it opened higher than expected on a traditionally very slow box office period.

The film exceeded predictions, pulling in $35.5 million, to give it the fifth largest domestic September opening of all-time. It added an additional $9.5 million to that figure from international markets, giving it a $45 million global opening total. Not bad for a movie that cost $60 million to make.

As James has mentioned a few times in the local box office report, movies with all African American casts targeted at that same demographic tends to often make good business, and that appears to be happening again for Screen Gems’ When The Bough Breaks. Kind of. Starring Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, Jaz Sinclair and Michael Kenneth Williams, the John Cassar directed psychological thriller opened in the US with a $15 million debut. For a movie with a price tag of just $10 million, that’s a very good start, however Screen Gems’ similar previous releases like The Perfect Guy and No Good Deed all opened stronger. Plus When The Bough Breaks is getting absolutely mauled by critics, and general audiences aren’t being too kind either, which means this one will probably have a sharp drop-off once word of mouth gets around next week.

The only other two new releases in the US is The Wild Life and The Disappointments Room and unfortunately it’s not good news for either of them. Before doing this chart write-up, I had never even heard of Lionsgate’s animated feature The Wild Life before. And based on the fact that it pulled in just $3.4 million domestically on its debut meant that most other people probably ever hear of it either. The movie has no recognizable cast names, and I can’t even find a Wikipedia page, so I don’t think it’s even going to get the disappointing footnote it warrants.

The Disappointments Room also lived up to its name in the worst way possible. It’s directed by DJ Caruso, written by Wentworth Miller and stars Kate Beckinsale – all people that audiences tend to like for one reason or another – and yet it could not even make the top 10. On the back of rotten reviews from both critics and audiences, it could only manage $1.4 million for 17th place on the charts. It has to be mentioned though that it only opened at less than half the number of screens than Sully did, but even so it’s still bombing hard as it could only pull an average of $901 per venue.

The rest of the chart pretty much just shifted down slightly to make room for the new releases. The only noteworthy mention is that with the $5.6 million it added to its domestic total this weekend past, coupled with the $10.1 million it made internationally, Suicide Squad global total is now just a few thousand dollars short of the $700 million mark, which it is expected to hit tonight.

Here’s what happened to the everything else.

• 01. Sully – $35.50 million (NE)
• 02. When the Bough Breaks – $15 million (NE)
• 03. Don’t Breathe – $8.21 million (LW:1)
• 04. Suicide Squad – $5.65 million (LW: 2)
• 05. The Wild Life – $3.40 million (NE)
• 06. Kubo and the Two Strings – $3.23 million (LW: 4)
• 07. Pete’s Dragon – $2.93 million (LW: 3)
• 08. Bad Moms – $2.83 million (LW: 7)
• 09. Hell or High Water – $2.60 million (LW: 12)
• 10. Sausage Party – $2.30 million (LW: 5)

Bye bye, The Light Between Oceans, we barely knew ye after just one week. Also dropping out of the top 10 this week is War Dogs and The Mechanic Resurrection, but they stuck around for a respective 7 and 5 weeks, making $39.8 million and $18.6 million.

(LW = Last Week, NE = New Entry)

Last Updated: September 12, 2016