This weekend once again proves that you should never underestimate the importance of children’s films, especially during the summer months, as Secret Life of Pets comes out at #1 in the box office yet again.
After taking in a shocking $104 million-a record for an original film-its opening weekend, Universal’s Secret Life of Pets comes out on top with another $50.5 million. This narrowly beats out the weekend’s newest film, Ghostbusters, which took in $46 million. Pets’ numbers are quite impressive, especially considering it received generally “Eh, it’s fine” reviews, and many parents have told me they hated the film, so I’m not sure who is still seeing it multiple times, other than bored parents who want their kids to shut up for a couple hours. Which, to be honest, is how the animation industry was born. This is the reason Finding Dory sits at #4 with $11.1 million, setting the all-time animation record by $4 million.
Ghostbusters’ numbers are a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, they are on par with Bridesmaids, The Heat, and Spy, which were all massive successes. This is evidence that the fanboy boycott is not as strong as they had hoped. Suck it, you fat, whiny babies. However, while those numbers are on par for Paul Feig, Kristen Wiig and especially Melissa McCarthy’s usual numbers, those films didn’t have nearly as large a budget as this film did. Sure, the film will break even, but just barely. In order for the studio to justify the film’s existence, it needs to make $50 million every weekend for the foreseeable future, and that’s just not how things work. That being said, I expect this one to make some extra money on DVD. It’s nice, mindless fun that will play well on the family television for the next few years.
This weekend also saw Bryan Cranston star in the Pablo Escobar thriller The Infiltrator. While the film did well for its size, taking in $5.2 million, that’s not enough to turn this into a huge smash. I guess people prefer Walter White dealing the drugs instead of taking down the dealers. Or maybe it just needed a better writer/director. I won’t ever know, I don’t have enough interest to see it.
In limited release, we had two indie films bursting at the seams, ready for a wide release. The first is Woody Allen’s Café Society. People are calling this a return to form for the 80-year old director, and its good reviews showed in its $355,000 take in five theaters (a $71,000 average). I look forward to checking this one out when it goes wide in the coming weeks. This excitement is in stark contrast to Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party by Dinesh D’Souza. D’Souza has been experiencing a severe fall from grace in recent years, going from an intelligent debater and commentator to the conservative version of Michael Moore’s worst tendencies. His recent film is attempting to build off the excitement for the Republican Nation Convention, and while he claims his film is an attempt to uncover Hillary’s crimes and the Democrats’ illegal dealings, by all accounts it is just an hour and a half of D’Souza blaming Obama and Hillary for his 2014 arrest for campaign finance violations. Even D’Souza’s most vocal allies have openly come out against this film, which isn’t a good sign. Nevertheless, the film made $77,500 in three theaters (a $25,833 take), and if you truly have an interest, the movie goes wide this Friday.
Below are the weekend box office results, and the answer is no, I haven’t forgiven you for what you’ve done to The BFG. Shame on all of you:
- The Secret Life of Pets (Week 2) – $50,560,000
- Ghostbusters (Opening) – $46,000,000
- The Legend of Tarzan (Week 3) – $11,120,000
- Finding Dory (Week 5) – $11,040,000
- Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (Week 2) – $7,500,000
- The Purge: Election Year (Week 3) – $6,080,000
- Central Intelligence (Week 5) – $5,300,000
- The Infiltrator (Opening) – $5,287,124
- The BFG (Week 3) – $3,747,000
- Independence Day: Resurgence (Week 4) – $3,450,000
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