Suicide Squad followed up its highest ever August opening with a hard dip, but without major competition from newcomers it held onto the number one spot for a second weekend in a row.
Slipping more than 65%, a common occurrence for comic book movies this year, Suicide Squad added $43 million, pushing to $222 million domestic against its $175 million production budget. Add in almost $250 million additional sales from foreign markets and the movie proves that the DC Comics movie machine, currently an underdog to the Marvel Comics behemoth, is gaining some ground with edgier take on the genre.
R-rated animated comedy Sausage Party enjoyed a relatively strong second place opening, banking $33 million. With a very modest production budget of $19 million, it's already a solid profit earner for Sony, but a noticeable drop from Friday to Saturday indicates that, like other R-rated comedies in the last couple of years, it may be looking at sharp declines in the coming weeks.
Disney's new take on the story of Pete's Dragon had trouble taking wing. It made a rough landing in the number three spot with just $21 million. A $65 million production budget and only minimal international interest so far leave the family flick in a very different league from Disney's other blockbusters this year, three of which (Finding Dory, The Jungle Book, Zootopia) are among the top five grossing movies of the year so far.
Meryl Streep's latest offering, Florence Foster Jenkins, made a quiet debut in eighth place with $6.5 million. That's on the low side for a Streep vehicle, and with a $29 million production budget it's the latest disappointment in what has been a mediocre year so far for Paramount.
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:
