Star Trek Beyond suffered from a mild case of sequelitis (down 14% from 2012’s Star Trek Into Darkness and 20% from the 2009 J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot), but that could be attributed, at least in part, to the intense competition for the family audience from other films in the top ten. It should also be noted that the film’s 14% drop is a lot less than some of this summer’s other victims of sequelitis (see the discussion of Ice Age: Collison Course below).
Even though Star Trek Beyond scored the third best live-action debut of the summer so far, it may not have been big enough. With a $185 million production cost, Star Trek Beyond will have to demonstrate good “legs” here in North America and do well very overseas, where its financial fate might not be determined until results from its run in China, where it opens September 2, are counted. With a strong rating from the critics (84% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes) and a solid “A-“ score from opening weekend audiences, Star Trek Beyond does have the potential to hang around in theaters for some time. A fourth Star Trek film in the revived franchise, already announced by Paramount, could be delayed or reduced in scope if Star Trek Beyond ends up in the red.
IMAX theaters accounted for a substantial 14% of Star Trek Beyond’s domestic total, indicating a strong appeal to hardcore fans, who don’t mind paying extra to see a movie from a franchise they like in the biggest and most elaborate format. Audiences for Star Trek Beyond were predictably male (57%) and older (75% over 25).
Second place went to Illumination Entertainment’s The Secret Life of Pets, which earned $29.3 million in its third frame as it raced to a domestic total of $260.7 million in just 17 days. This film is an out-and-out smash that will undoubtedly spawn numerous sequels. It has already passed the domestic totals of The Lego Movie and Despicable Me, and is a sure bet to cross the $300 million mark.
Paul Feig’s gynocentric Ghostbusters suffered the biggest drop in the top ten, falling 53% in its second weekend as it earned $21.6 million to bring its domestic total to $86.8 million. While the drop was a bit on the excessive side for a comedy, the film did face a wealth of animated competition for the family audience. The problem is the movie’s $144 million production cost, which means that the film has to have peak performances both domestically and abroad to make money. Ghostbusters has already earned $120 million overseas, but it will need to hang on in the domestic market and keep the weekly drops well below 53% in the coming weeks.
On the other hand there is the horror movie Lights Out, which was produced for just $5 million and debuted with $21.6 million in a virtual dead heat with Ghostbusters for third place. As was the case with Ghostbusters last week, females predominated in the audience (54%), but the crowd for Lights Out was way younger with 37% under 18. One of the trends that we have seen this summer is consistently strong showings from horror movies, which are typically produced for much less, and thus need to make much less to be successful.
As has been pointed out here several times, the Ice Age animated franchise is losing steam here in North America, but no one quite predicted the 55% drop that Ice Age: Collison Course suffered as it earned just $21 million compared with the $46.6 million debut of Ice Age: Continental Drift in 2012. Fortunately for Fox, the movie has earned $127 million overseas. Part of the problem is intense competition for the family audience from the two other animated features in the top ten, The Secret Life of Pets and Pixar’s Finding Dory, but Collison Course has a rotten 13% positive rating from the critics surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes, which doesn’t help the film’s future prospects, though the folks who did see it, gave it an OK “B+” CinemaScore. Unless Collison Course, which cost a hefty $105 million to produce, does develop some “legs” here, it very well might be the last entry in the franchise for quite some time.
Sixth place went to Pixar’s Finding Dory, which dropped 36% in its sixth weekend in theaters as it earned $7.2 million to bring its 2016 leading domestic box office total to $460.2 million. A half billion dollar domestic run for this sequel to Finding Nemo is not out of the question.
Warner Bros.’ The Legend of Tarzan dropped just 43.6%, but like so many other of this summer’s blockbusters, it was just too expensive with a production budget of $180 million. So far the film has earned $115.8 million in North America and $145.7 million overseas for a global total of $261.5 million, a little over half of what it would need to make to be profitable. While there is obviously a fairly large audience interested in a new Tarzan film, it is not a big enough group to support such an expensive effort.
The only new film in the top ten is Dinesh D’Souza’s anti-Hillary Clinton documentary, Hillary Clinton’s America, which opened in 1,216 theaters and earned $3.7 million. Like a similar anti-Obama film released during the last election cycle, this partisan film is for Hillary haters only, and has relatively limited prospects (not that political documentaries have a great track record at the box office anyway).
Be sure and check back here next week as this highly competitive summer season continues with the release the Matt Damon-starring thriller Jason Bourne, the R-rated comedy Bad Moms, and the nationwide rollout of Woody Allen’s 1930s period piece Café Society.