Sully maintains box office altitude

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has the lead role in the new film Snowden. It came in fourth at last weekend’s box office and made about $8 million.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has the lead role in the new film Snowden. It came in fourth at last weekend’s box office and made about $8 million.

Sully, the Warner Bros. drama about the heroics of US Airways pilot Sully Sullenberger, led the box office for a second weekend, fending off challenges from several debuting releases.

The film, which courted controversy with its take on the jet's landing in the Hudson River in 2009, collected about $21.7 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, ComScore Inc. said Sunday. A new take on The Blair Witch Project, a 1999 film, landed in second place, while the sequel Bridget Jones's Baby placed third and Snowden was fourth.

Blair Witch and Bridget Jones's Baby came to theaters more than a decade after their previous installments. Both also underperformed some estimates while competing for moviegoers with Sully.

Blair Witch generated about $9.6 million, less than half the $20.5 million anticipated by analysts at BoxOfficePro.com. The film arrives 17 years after The Blair Witch Project, one of the most profitable movies of all time. The new movie was made for $5 million, according to Box Office Mojo, a tiny sum compared to today's mega-budget films.

The new Lionsgate release also uses filming techniques that made the first Blair Witch famous. A young man finds a video showing his sister's experiences in a demonic forest and heads out with friends to find her. The original movie, with its found footage, left audiences wondering if the story was real.

Bridget Jones's Baby is the third installment in the series about a single British woman looking for love. In the new film, she becomes pregnant and doesn't know who the father is. Renee Zellweger returns in the lead role, with Colin Firth back as Mark Darcy. It collected about $8.6 million, compared with an estimate of $12.1 million by Hollywood Stock Exchange.

The third wide release of the weekend, Snowden, was directed by Oliver Stone and features Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the federal employee who revealed the U.S. government's post-Sept. 11 surveillance programs. It generated about $8 million, compared with the forecast of $6 million from BoxOfficePro.com.

"Sully is benefiting from an older demographic that doesn't rush out opening weekend or day. They come out when they hear their friends talking about the movie," said Jeff Goldstein, executive vice president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. "I'm expecting to see a really long run."

The movie has brought in $23.4 million overseas, bringing its worldwide gross to $93.7 million.

Two horror releases from Columbia's Screen Gems continue to do strong business -- Don't Breathe brought in $5.6 million to take the No. 5 box-office spot, while When the Bough Breaks took in $5.5 million for the weekend.

Suicide Squad grossed an additional $4.7 million during the weekend to bring its domestic haul to about $314 million. The Warner Bros. release has taken in more than $400 million worldwide.

Rounding out the top 10 is a group of family films -- the animated The Wild Life, which grossed about $2.8 million in its second weekend; Kubo and the Two Strings, which took in $2.5 million; and Disney's remake of Pete's Dragon with about $2 million.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:

  1. Sully, Warner Bros., $21,653,017, 3,525 locations, $6,143 average, $70,194,368, 2 weeks.

  2. Blair Witch, Lionsgate, $9,576,057, 3,121 locations, $3,068 average, $9,576,057, 1 week.

  3. Bridget Jones's Baby, Universal, $8,571,785, 2,927 locations, $2,929 average, $8,571,785, 1 week.

  4. Snowden, Open Road, $8,000,058, 2,443 locations, $3,275 average, $8,000,058, 1 week.

  5. Don't Breathe, Screen Gems, $5,640,232, 3,208 locations, $1,758 average, $75,369,013, 4 weeks.

  6. When the Bough Breaks, Screen Gems, $5,483,126, 2,246 locations, $2,441 average, $22,655,858, 2 weeks.

  7. Suicide Squad, Warner Bros., $4,701,834, 2,740 locations, $1,716 average, $313,774,166, 7 weeks.

  8. The Wild Life, Lionsgate, $2,771,443, 2,493 locations, $1,112 average, $6,785,712, 2 weeks.

  9. Kubo and the Two Strings, Focus Features, $2,540,031, 1,757 locations, $1,446 average, $44,272,005, 5 weeks.

  10. Pete's Dragon, Disney, $2,152,802, 1,948 locations, $1,105 average, $72,917,327, 6 weeks.

  11. Hell or High Water, Lionsgate, $2,074,974, 1,505 locations, $1,379 average, $22,875,505, 6 weeks.

  12. Bad Moms, STX Entertainment, $1,765,403, 1,486 locations, $1,188 average, $110,010,331, 8 weeks.

  13. Hillsong -- Let Hope Rise, Pure Flix, $1,357,243, 816 locations, $1,663 average, $1,357,243, 1 week.

  14. No Manches Frida, Lionsgate, $1,291,512, 456 locations, $2,832 average, $9,195,621, 3 weeks.

  15. The Secret Life of Pets, Universal, $1,231,895, 1,005 locations, $1,226 average, $363,388,255, 11 weeks.

  16. Sausage Party, Columbia, $1,203,151, 1,181 locations, $1,019 average, $95,338,012, 6 weeks.

  17. Jason Bourne, Universal, $1,098,085, 1,008 locations, $1,089 average, $160,408,000, 8 weeks.

  18. War Dogs, Warner Bros., $1,025,050, 902 locations, $1,136 average, $41,675,235, 5 weeks.

  19. Mechanic: Resurrection, Lionsgate, $802,401, 958 locations, $838 average, $20,142,970, 4 weeks.

  20. The Light Between Oceans, Disney, $785,939, 1,133 locations, $694 average, $11,186,715, 3 weeks.

MovieStyle on 09/23/2016

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