“War Dogs” Are No Match for Supervillains or Sausages

By Kip Mooney • On • In News, Weekend Box Office Report News, Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

August 19-21, 2016

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Suicide Squad $20.7 million
Sausage Party $15.3 million
War Dogs $14.3 million
Kubo and the Two Strings  $12.6 million
Ben-Hur $11.3 million

Thanks to a severe lack of interest in any new release, Suicide Squad stayed No. 1 for a third straight week. The DC flick fell another 52 percent and is danger of falling short of $300 million domestically. Still, it has crossed half a billion dollars once international grosses are factored in. That puts at No. 8 for the year, which is only the fourth-biggest comic book movie of the year.

Sausage Party did not make it past Suicide Squad, instead falling 55 percent. Still, it's already made three times its budget. And that was enough to hold off all newcomers. The closest any of them came was War Dogs, Todd Phillips' adaptation of a true story about 20-something American arms dealers and their shady dealings with the U.S. government. It took in about a million dollars less, but well ahead of the other debuts.

Kubo and the Two Strings, the latest acclaimed film from animation studio Laika, took in about $12.6 million. That's the lowest debut of any of their features, though it does likely have an Oscar nomination to look forward to. All their previous efforts have scored a nod for Best Animated Feature. What won't be getting any Oscar love is Ben-Hur, a remake of one of the most honored films of all time. It debuted even lower than the director's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Yikes.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: A Tale of Love and Darkness, Natalie Portman's directorial debut. It averaged $18,000 on its pair of screens.
  • Hell or High Water added 400 more screens to bring it up to 12th place. One of the best reviewed movies of the summer should make its way up as the offerings at the major theaters dwindle.
  • The Jungle Book finally passed Deadpool to become the No. 3 movie of the year. It's doubtful any movie this fall will come close to unseating it.

Next week:

The last throes of summer. Roberto Duran takes on Sugar Ray Leonard in Hands of Stone. Three would-be thieves take on a blind homeowner in Don't Breathe. And Jason Statham comes back as a hired assassin in Mechanic: Resurrection. It's a total toss-up at this point, but I say Don't Breathe pulls in $18 million to take the top spot.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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