Weekend Wrap-Up: Star Trek Tops Chart, but still Weakest in Reboot Franchise with $59.25 million
July 26, 2016
As expected, Star Trek Beyond earned first place on the weekend box office chart and while it didn’t live up to my lofty predictions, it still did very well with $59.25 million. The next two wide releases, Lights Out and Ice Age: Collision Course, had nearly identical openings with $21.69 million and $21.37 million respectively. For Lights Out, this is a breakout opening and means it is practically guaranteed a profit and will likely get a sequel. For Collision Course, it is a sign that they should retire the franchise. Both The Secret Life of Pets and Ghostbusters earned $20 million, meaning every film in the top five topped that mark, tying with the record most recently set last May. The overall box office was 20% higher than last week at $196 million. This is also 29% higher than the same weekend last year. Since last week, the year-over-year competition got a little closer at $6.55 billion to $6.41 billion. 2016 is still ahead by 2.2%, but this is less than the ticket price inflation.
Star Trek Beyond pulled in $59.25 million over the weekend, which was the best live-action opening since X-Men: Apocalypse, but the worst opening in the rebooted franchise. The film did earn great reviews and that should help the legs. They had better help the legs, as the film cost $185 million to make, so it will need to make at least $400 million worldwide to break even any time soon. It is too early to tell how it will do internationally, so we just have to wait and see.
The Secret Life of Pets fell faster than expected down 42% to $29.61 million over the weekend pushing its total to $260.99 million. At this pace, it will reach $300 million before too long, probably while it is still in the top five. However, I’m not as confident it will reach $350 million.
Lights Out was only expected to earn fifth place, but it managed third in a very tight race with $21.69 million. The film cost only $5 million to make and there is a reasonable chance its domestic P&A budget was only $16 million, meaning the film may have earned more during its opening weekend than its combined budget. That would be amazing. Even if it cost substantially more than that to advertise, its reviews suggest it will stick around long enough to break even just on its domestic theatrical run. I would be shocked if Warner Bros. isn’t already working on a sequel.
Ice Age: Collision Course was the only real disappointment of the weekend, as it opened in fourth place with $21.37 million. This is by far the lowest opening in the franchise, even if you don’t take into account inflation. The film’s reviews are even worse than its box office numbers. The film will do substantially better internationally and will likely break even, eventually. But I don’t think they should make a sixth Ice Age film.
Ghostbusters had the second best sophomore decline for a live-action film this summer down 54% to $21.01 million over the weekend. This lifted its running tally to $86.27 million over the weekend, while it will very likely hit $100 million by this time next week. This matched our predictions perfectly and beat many analysts expectations. It isn’t as good as Paul Feig’s films usually perform, but visual effect films like this tend to be much more front-loaded than comedies are, so there’s no reason to not be impressed by its run so far.
- Star Trek Beyond Comparisons
- Ice Age: Collision Course Comparisons
- Lights Out Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Ghostbusters, The Secret Life of Pets, X-Men: Apocalypse, Ice Age: Collision Course, Lights Out, Star Trek Beyond, Star Trek, Ice Age, Paul Feig