Clint Eastwood’s Sully, a recreation of the “miracle on the Hudson” starring Tom Hanks as airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, easily topped the weekend box office with a $35.5 million debut, the best bow ever for the weekend after Labor Day, which traditionally marks the appearance of the first “adult dramas” with Oscar pretentions.  But the “surrogate” thriller When the Bough Breaks starring Morris Chestnut debuted with just $15 million, down sharply from the $25.5 million earned by The Perfect Guy, a thriller that also starred Chestnut and bowed on this same weekend one year ago), and Relativity Media’s horror film The Disappointments Room was a bomb, earning just $1.4 million, so the total of the top 12 films turned out to be almost exactly the same as it was a year ago.

Don’t be surprised if Eastwood’s Sully hangs around theaters for quite some time.  Sully has a fine 83% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and the film received a solid “A” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, which, unsurprisingly for an “adult drama,” were older with 80% over 35, and skewed a bit to the distaff side (56% female).  In spite of the older crowd, Sully did well in IMAX theaters, which accounted for 11% of the film’s total, which makes sense since the movie was shot entirely with IMAX cameras and captures the dramatic water landing with impressive verisimilitude.

If Sully does nab Oscar nods, it will be around for a long time, but the $60 million production already looks like a hit, given the kind of multiplier that the films of Sully’s iconic star (and director) have earned in the past.  Tom Hanks, this generation’s version of Jimmy Stewart, playing an authentic American hero in an upbeat drama appears to be in this case a pretty solid formula for success.

Second place went to Sony’s When the Bough Breaks, a sort of reworking of Fatal Attraction with a surrogate mother as the obsessive villain that stars Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall.  While When the Bough Breaks earned just 60% of what the Chestnut-starring thriller The Perfect Guy brought in last year, the $10 million production should end up in the black.

Last week’s top film, the horror/thriller Don’t Breathe posted a solid hold, dropping just 48.1% as it earned $8.2 million to bring its 17-day total to $66.8 million, not bad for a film that cost under $10 million to produce.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): September 9-11, 2016
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Sully	$35,505,000	3,525	$10,072	$35,505,000	1
2	When the Bough Breaks	$15,000,000	2,246	$6,679	$15,000,000	1
3	Don't Breathe	$8,210,000	3,384	$2,426	$66,833,158	3
4	Suicide Squad	$5,650,000	3,103	$1,821	$307,407,853	6
5	The Wild Life	$3,400,000	2,493	$1,364	$3,400,000	1
6	Kubo and the Two Strings	$3,230,000	2,335	$1,383	$40,847,680	4
7	Pete's Dragon	$2,938,000	2,685	$1,094	$70,016,653	5
8	Bad Moms	$2,830,000	1,888	$1,499	$107,526,266	7
9	Hell or High Water	$2,600,000	1,445	$1,799	$19,823,734	5
10	Sausage Party	$2,300,000	2,071	$1,111	$93,182,579	5

With little competition for younger viewers Suicide Squad also posted a strong hold, dropping just 43% as it earned $5.6 million to bring its domestic total to $307.4 million.  The DC Comics-based supervillain team-up film has now earned $699 million worldwide.

Fifth place went to The Wild Life, an animated feature from Belgium that retells the story of Robinson Crusoe from the point of view of the animals on the island where the castaway is marooned.  Bowing in nearly 2,500 theaters, The Wild Life, which forsakes the bathroom humor that is a staple of these “made-for-kids” features, earned just $3.4 million.

A much better animated film, Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings, dropped to sixth in its fourth weekend of release.  Kubo slipped 49.3% as it took in $3.2 million to bring its domestic total to $40.8 million, still far below what it will take to put this $60 million production in the black.

The last four spots in the top 10 went to some of this summer’s “leggier” offerings, Disney’s Pete’s Dragon, which has done fairly well after a disastrous opening, this summer’s R-rated comedy hit Bad Moms, the excellent contemporary crime film Hell or High Water, and the R-rated animated hit Sausage Party.

Relativity Media’s horror/thriller The Disappointments Room, which stars Kate Beckinsale, debuted in 1,554 theaters, but was DOA with a total of just $1.4 million, a paltry $901 per screen.  This was Relativity’s first release since emerging from bankruptcy—better luck next time.

Be sure to check back here next week to see what happens to trio of box office newcomers that Oliver Stone’s controversial Snowden, a remake of the shaky camera horror opus Blair Witch, and the comedy sequel Bridget Jones’s Baby.