Thursday Night Previews: Dogs Go to War with $1.9 million Preemptive Strike - Updated with Ben-Hur Numbers

August 19, 2016

War Dogs

War Dogs got off to a surprisingly strong start with $1.9 million during its midnight previews last night. This is about 20% more than Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates made a few weeks ago. The two films are great comparisons, but we don’t have a lot of other films to work with. This is good news for the film and makes it likely that it will beat predictions by a small margin.

Kubo and the Two Strings was well back with $515,000; however, it is a family film and these rarely do exceptionally well during midnight shows. In fact, it isn’t that uncommon for studios to skip previews. For example, Ice Age: Collision Course earned $850,000 during its previews. If the two films had the same legs, Kubo would open with $13 million. However, I think its reviews will help its word-of-mouth and give it a $15 million opening.

Ben-Hur earned a surprisingly strong start with $900,000 last night. This is better than the $800,000 Gods of Egypt managed earlier in the year and does mean Ben-Hur could be on pace for $15 million weekend. It’s not even close to what the film would need to break even, but it is better than expected.

- War Dogs Comparisons
- Kubo and the Two Strings Comparisons
- Ben-Hur Comparisons

Filed under: Midnight Previews, Ice Age: Collision Course, Ben-Hur, War Dogs, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Kubo and the Two Strings