It was, as Yogi Berra so eloquently put it, déjà vu all over again for Warner Bros. and DC as Suicide Squad, fresh off setting all sorts of August box office records last weekend, followed the lead of Batman v. Superman (-69%), tumbling 67.3% in its sophomore session, though at $43.8 million it still had more than enough box office muscle to hold off all the new entries in this late summer movie season.  Along with a stronger-than-expected debut from the R-rated animated feature Sausage Factory and a solid bow from Disney’s Pete’s Dragon, Suicide Squad’s second weekend total was enough to boost the box office to a solid 13% gain over the same weekend last year when Straight Outta Compton debuted with $60.2 million.

Are the precipitous second weekend drops experience by Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad the new normal for heavily-hyped superhero films, or do they reflect the failings of those two film, both of which were excoriated by the critics?  It is way too soon to begin making genre-wide judgments, and the two films are not follow exactly the same trajectory.  After setting a record on its debut Friday, Suicide Squad dropped by 41% on Saturday, but recovered after the weekend with solid showings early in the week, only to see those strong early week efforts followed by second weekend numbers that are only marginally better than those of Batman v. Superman, which was basically dead in the water after its initial week (that film’s multiplier of 1.99—the number of times the movies debut weekend total has to be multiplied by to arrive at its domestic cumulative—is the lowest ever for a film that opened with $100 million or more).

Suicide Squad took in another $58.7 million overseas to bring its global total to $464.5 million, but this weekend’s $58.7 million total represents a 66% drop from the Squad’s foreign total last weekend.  In the next few weekends, which function as the transition from the summer movie season to the fall, Suicide Squad won’t face as much direct competition, so there will be opportunities for the film to demonstrate “legs,” but there are only a few positive signs in its second weekend performance.

Second place went to the well-reviewed R-rated animated comedy Sausage Party, which debuted with $33.6 million and the highest per-screen average in the Top 10.  Sausage Party cost just $19 million to produce, and has earned an enviable 82% positive rating from the critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.  How long will this Sausage Party last?  Well, the big problem is the lousy “B” CinemaScore, which opening weekend audiences gave the film—will word-of-mouth trump all those positive reviews? Check back here next week and find out.

Third place went to Disney’s remake of Pete’s Dragon, which fared even better than Sausage Factory with the critics (85% positive), and the Disney do-over  scored an excellent “A” with opening weekend audiences that skewed female (53%) and younger (33% under 12).  Given both audience and critical reaction, Pete’s Dragon should demonstrate some pretty good “legs” in the coming weeks, though its opening $21.5 million was disappointing, especially given the dearth of newly released family-targeting movies.

Universal’s Jason Bourne dropped 39.2% in its third weekend as it earned $13.6 million, bringing its domestic cumulative to $126.8 million, which is roughly equivalent to what the film has earned overseas.  While this latest Bourne film, which cost $120 million to produce, is now approaching its breakeven point, it does not appear to be the kind of reboot the franchise needs.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): August 12-14, 2016

Film

Weekend Gross

Screens

Avg./Screen

Total Gross

Wk#

1

Suicide Squad

$43,770,000

4,255

$10,287

$222,874,728

2

2

Sausage Party

$33,600,000

3,103

$10,828

$33,600,000

1

3

Pete's Dragon

$21,501,000

3,702

$5,808

$21,501,000

1

4

Jason Bourne

$13,620,000

3,528

$3,861

$126,782,345

3

5

Bad Moms

$11,450,000

3,188

$3,592

$71,461,293

3

6

The Secret Life of Pets

$8,840,000

2,958

$2,989

$335,942,075

6

7

Star Trek Beyond

$6,800,000

2,577

$2,639

$139,679,949

4

8

Florence Foster Jenkins

$6,580,000

1,528

$4,306

$6,580,000

1

9

Nine Lives

$3,500,000

2,264

$1,546

$13,550,825

2

10

Lights Out

$3,220,000

1,652

$1,949

$61,134,818

4


As predicted here a couple of weeks ago, the R-rated comedy Bad Moms continues to show good legs, dropping just 18.2% in its third frame as it earned $11.5 million to bring its domestic total to $71.5 million.  It is just possible that this $20 million production will end its domestic run with over $100 million.

Now in its sixth weekend, Universal’s megahit The Secret Life of Pets is finally slowing down a bit, as it earned $8.8 million to bring its domestic total to $335.9 million.  Star Trek Beyond also suffered a minor decline (32%) as it brought in $6.8 million to bring its domestic total to $139.7 million, still well below J.J. Abrams 2009 reboot’s fourth weekend total of $209.3 million.

This weekend’s other new release was the adult-skewing Florence Foster Jenkins, which stars Meryl Streep as the New York heiress whose attempts to purchase a “singing career” were the subject of widespread derision in the 1930s.  Predictably the audience for Florence Foster Jenkins skewed female (63%) and was far older than even comic book fandom (with just 3% under 25).  Audiences gave this quirky film a solid “A-“ CinemaScore, so it may hang on, especially in art theaters.

This year’s #1 film in the domestic market, Pixar’s Finding Dory, has now earned $476.8 million here in North America.  This week, Finding Dory’s global cumulative reached $897.4 million, giving Disney the top four films of the year so far (Captain America: Civil War 1.152 billion, Zootopia 1.023 billion, and The Jungle Book $947.4 million are the other three).

Be sure to check back here next weekend to see if the remake of Ben-Hur, Todd Phillip’s heavily-advertised comedy War Dogs, or the Laika stop-motion animated Kubo and the Two Strings can unseat Suicide Squad from its box office throne.