By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
The Secret Life of Pets remained top dog with an estimated $50.5 million weekend gross. Nonetheless, it had stiff competition from the incoming distaff reboot of Ghostbusters that arrived alive with $46 million. The session’s other national newcomer The Infiltrator on the hunt for drug kingpin Pablo Escobar snuck into the top 10 with $5.2 million.
Top exclusive newcomers included Dinesh D’Souza’s election year screed Hilary Clinton: The Secret History of the Democratic Party that had faithful support of $77,500 from three precincts. Progressive moviegoers embraced Woody Allen’s Café Society with a resounding $350,000 endorsement.
In the niches, the Chinese So Young 2: Never Young bowed with $51,200 from 21 screens while Korea’s Seondal: The Man Who Sells the River grossed $32,700 at seven venues. In Québec. local production King Dave had a short reign of $28,600 from 20 screens.
Revenues for the frame inched toward $165 million and a 26% decline from last weekend. It was also a 17% abatement from 2015 when the launch of Ant-Man led with $57.2 million and Trainwreck bowed to $30.1 million.
The revived Ghostbusters tracked second to The Secret Life of Pets with expectations of a $45-$48 million opening that suggested a not-quite-blockbuster level but remained in the serious consideration category for a sequel. The opening audience was identified as 54% female with 55% aged 25-years and older.
Exit data wasn’t available for The Infiltrator but industry expectations were grim for the trackdown tale with high end predictions of $4 million. Its release placement was a head scratcher and an oddball choice as a counterprogrammer.
The weekend also featured several alternative expansions including an effective second round for Captain Fantastic. Also impressive has been the slow rollout of New Zealand’s The Hunt for the Wilderpeople. But the biggest seasonal surprise has been The Lobster, which has now grossed more in the domestic marketplace than its entire international box office.
| Weekend (estimates) July 15 – 17, 2016 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| The Secret Life of Pets | Uni | 50.5 (11,540) | -52% | 4381 | 203.1 |
| Ghostbusters | Sony | 46.0 (11,600) | NEW | 3963 | 46 |
| The Legend of Tarzan | WB | 11.1 (3,120) | -47% | 3551 | 103 |
| Finding Dory | BV | 10.9 (3,090) | -48% | 3536 | 445.4 |
| Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates | Fox | 7.5 (2,480) | -55% | 3008 | 31.3 |
| The Purge: Election Day | Uni | 6.7 (2,270) | -51% | 2671 | 71 |
| Central Intelligence | WB | 5.3 ((2,210) | -35% | 2381 | 117.5 |
| The Infiltrator | Broad Green | 5.2 (3,230) | NEW | 1601 | 6.6 |
| The BFG | BV | 3.7 (1,690) | -53% | 2182 | 47.3 |
| Independence Dy: Resurgence | Fox | 3.4 (1,500) | -56% | 2290 | 98.5 |
| The Shallows | Sony | 2.9 (1,220) | -39% | 2406 | 51.3 |
| Sultan | Yash Raj | 1.0 (3,430) | -59% | 283 | 5.2 |
| The Conjuring 2 | WB | .85 (1,500) | -50% | 566 | 101.1 |
| Now You See Me 2 | Lionsgate | .68 (1,300) | -48% | 523 | 63.5 |
| Hunt for the Wilderpeople | Orchard | .55 (3,530) | 43% | 156 | 1.5 |
| The Jungle Book | BV | .49 (1,780) | 95% | 276 | 360.8 |
| Free State of Jones | STX/Elevation | .49 (960) | -63% | 506 | 20.4 |
| Café Society | Lionsgate | .35 (70,600) | NEW | 5 | 0.35 |
| Our Kind of Traitor | Roadside Attract | .29 (1,110) | -59% | 262 | 2.8 |
| Captain Fantastic | Bleecker Street | .28 (7,690) | 195% | 36 | 0.4 |
| X-Men: Apocalypse | Fox | .26 (1,040) | -36% | 250 | 155 |
| Swiss Army Man | A24 | .26 (1,130) | -62% | 228 | 3.7 |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: OotS | Par | .25 (1,370) | -21% | 185 | 80.8 |
| Me Before You | WB | .25 (1,033) | -41% | 238 | 55.3 |
| Warcraft | Uni | .19 (1,280) | -57% | 149 | 47 |
| Les 3 p’tits cochons 2 | Seville | .18 (2,360) | -59% | 77 | 1.6 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $157.25 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -17% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -26% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Love & Friendship | Roadside Attract | .17 (1,240) | -43% | 140 | 13.4 |
| The Lobster | A24/Mongrel | .17 (1,670) | -36% | 101 | 8.7 |
| The Innocents | Music Box | .16 (2,340) | 23% | 67 | 0.39 |
| Maggie’s Plan | Sony Classics | .12 (960) | -26% | 127 | 3.1 |
| Cold War 2 | Well Go | .10 (4,390) | -36% | 23 | 0.35 |
| Hilary’s America: Secret History of Deec Party | D’Souza Media | 77,500 (25,830) | 3 | 0.08 | |
| Wiener-Dog | IFC | 64,300 (870) | -29% | 74 | 0.38 |
| So Young 2: Never Gone | China Lion | 51,200 (2,440) | 21 | 0.05 | |
| Seondal: The Man Who Sells the River | CJ | 32,700 (4,670) | 7 | 0.03 | |
| King Dave | Seville | 28,600 (1,430) | 20 | 0.03 | |
| When Larry Met Mary | Media Asia | 11,400 (1,630) | 7 | 0.01 | |
| Closet Monster | Elevation | 10,700 (10,700) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Don’t Blink – Robert Frank | Grasshopper | 8,900 (8900) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Equals | A24 | 8,520 (2,130) | 4 | 0.01 | |
| Lucha Mexico | Kino | 7,900 (360) | 22 | 0.01 | |
| Undrafted | Vertical | 5,800 (360) | 16 | 0.01 | |
| Phantom Boy | Gkids | 4,700 (4,700) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Five | A-Z Films | 3,900 (490) | 8 | 0.01 | |
| Outlaws and Angels | Momentum | 3,300 (300) | 11 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – July 14, 2016) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| Buena Vista (10) | 1988.3 | 31.70% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (13) | 1045.3 | 16.70% | |||
| Warner Bros. (15) | 878.4 | 14.00% | |||
| Universal (13) | 662.3 | 10.60% | |||
| Paramount (9) | 397.3 | 6.30% | |||
| Sony (15) | 375.9 | 6.00% | |||
| Lionsgate (13) | 269.4 | 4.30% | |||
| Fous (8) | 134.5 | 2.10% | |||
| Open Road (4) | 69.4 | 1.10% | |||
| STX (4) | 61.3 | 1.00% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (8) | 54.8 | 0.90% | |||
| A24 (7) | 47.7 | 0.75% | |||
| Roadside Attractions (7) | 33.6 | 0.55% | |||
| Sony Classics (10) | 24.7 | 0.40% | |||
| Other * (208) | 222.1 | 3.60% | |||
| 6265 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.35% | |||||
| Top Global Grossers (January 1 – July 14, 2016) | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
| Captain America: Civil War | BV | 1,150,794,980 | |||
| Zootopia | BV | 1,016,476,807 | |||
| The Jungle Book | BV | 936,471,154 | |||
| Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice | WB | 869,781,622 | |||
| Deadpool | Fox | 782,038,982 | |||
| Star Wars: The Force Awakens * | BV | 741,421,311 | |||
| Finding Dory | BV | 666,260,852 | |||
| The Mermaid | Alibaba; Sony | 552,537,068 | |||
| The Revenant | Fox | 532,077,984 | |||
| X-Men: Apocalypse | Fox | 533,596,228 | |||
| Kung Fu Panda 3 | Fox; Dreamworks | 518,997,505 | |||
| Warcraft | Uni; Legend | 434,571,223 | |||
| The Angry Birds Movie | Sony | 341,880,281 | |||
| Independence Day: Resurgence | Fox | 310,567,172 | |||
| The Conjuring 2 | WB | 295,800,627 | |||
| Alice Through the Looking Glass | BV | 272,730,049 | |||
| Now You See Me 2 | Lionsgate | 243,496,359 | |||
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows | Par | 223,406,522 | |||
| London Has Fallen | Focus; NuImage | 203,893,315 | |||
| The Secret Life of Pets | Uni | 198,356,132 | |||
| The Monkey King 2 | China Lion | 190,755,793 | |||
| From Vegas to Macau III | Bona; Media Asia | 186,923,621 | |||
| Allegiant | Lionsgate | 179,885,634 | |||
| * does not include 2015 revenues | |||||
