Box Office Week: Don't Breathe takes #1 with a surprising $26.1 mil. The other big release, Mechanic: Resurrection, opened to a decent $7.5 mil at #5. Meanwhile The Jungle Book inches past the domestic total of Deadpool, meaning Disney now has the top three highest grossing films of the year so far.

Rank	Title	Domestic Gross (Weekend)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Week #
1	Don't Breathe	$26,115,000	$28,015,000	1
2	Suicide Squad	$12,110,000	$635,982,627	4
3	Kubo and the Two Strings	$7,909,000	$27,620,378	2
4	Sausage Party	$7,665,000	$88,708,510	3
5	Mechanic: Resurrection	$7,500,000	$7,500,000	1

Notable Box Office Stories:

• I've said it before and I'll say it again and again: never underestimate horror. This was proved once again by the surprising performance of Don't Breathe, which came in #1 with $26.1 mil. August usually isn't a prime spot for horror which tends to either go for the big summer crowds or come in late September/early October to get the pre-Halloween bump, but it seems Don't Breathe's distance from the crowd combined with positive reviews gave it the perfect time slot. Most horror films drop significantly on their second weekend after their core audience is eaten up, but with a Cinemascore of B+ (horror films tend to be most controversial genre on Cinemascore) it will be interesting if Don't Breathe can buck that trend. Depending on legs the film is likely looking at a domestic run around $50 mil - $65 mil when all is said and done. Not too shabby for a film costing only $10 mil without an A-list cast. This film probably won't make Conjuring money, but it's another key entry in the incredible ROIs that horror films have provided in a year of big budget disappointments.

• It's almost weird to discuss Mechanic: Resurrection in terms of box office since the film's run is basically a 2 hour long commercial for the inevitable Redbox release. While Statham has never been the biggest box office draw, his film are consistent direct to DVD and VOD sellers and since Mechanic: Resurrection was release by Lionsgate Premiere (a mostly VOD exclusive company) it seems like the film was always meant to be a backend earner. Still the film surprised even its meager $5 mil predictions, sneaking into the top 5 with $7.5 mil. With a budget of $40 mil it's likely Lionsgate Premiere released the film in theaters to earn a small domestic run plus a decent haul from UK to hopefully cover budget before Statham rules in the VOD space. The film received a solid B+ on Cinemascore but with such a small opening it won't really change much. Unfortunately success for this film will be beyond the usual box office trends as it never was meant to set the box office world on fire.

• August is always an odd time for Hollywood, lots of films that can't find a home in either summer or awards season. Three new independent films are trying to eek out this odd space to varying results. First up is Hell or High Water, which has ridden some of the best reviews of the year during its gradual expansion which added 430 screens this week. These factors helped the films earn $3.7 mil at #12 for the weekend with an overall haul of $8.5 mil. The film should surpass 1,000 screens within the coming weeks. Next up is the latest (and only ?) entry in the Presidential romantic drama genre, Southside With You, which takes a Before Trilogy approach to the first date between Michelle and Barack Obama. The film opened on 800 screens for a decent if not incredible small opening at #13 with $3 mil. Finally is Hands of Stone the biopic boxing film which was supposed to open wide this weekend but last minute shifted to a small to large opening strategy. The film came in #16 with $1.7 mil on 800 screens, a per theater average of $2,141 which does not bode well for the film's planned Labor Day expansion.

• Now that The Jungle Book is hitting second run theaters, the film just got enough scratch to squeak past Deadpool's $363 mil domestic gross, making Jungle Book the #3 highest grossing film of 2016. This also means that Disney now has the top three spots domestically for 2016 (Finding Dory is #1 with $479.6 mil and Captain America: Civil War is #2 with $407 mil and Jungle Book is #3 with $363.5 mil). Worldwide Disney holds the top 4 of the top earners for 2016 (there the order is Captain America: Civil War, Zootopia, Jungle Book, and Finding Dory as #1-#4 respectively). It is interesting that Disney's massive 2016 success has been entirely on those four films as the next highest entry for Disney on the 2016 list is Alice Through the Looking Glass at #24. Still despite recent disappointments like Alice, The BFG (which is earning really well in the UK but maybe not well enough), and Pete's Dragon the studio's incredible performance on those films and the upcoming possible powerhouse trio of Doctor Strange, Moana, and Rogue One puts the studio in prime position to dominate 2016 even more than they have already.

Films Reddit Wants to Follow

This is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.

Title	Domestic Gross (Cume)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Budget	Week #
The Jungle Book (2016)	$363,545,049	$959,845,049	$175 mil	20
Captain America: Civil War	$407,826,164	$1,152,424,932	$250 mil	17
Finding Dory	$479,602,645	$929,102,645	$200 mil	11
Ghostbusters (2016)	$124,952,621	$217,452,621	$144 mil	7
Star Trek Beyond	$150,870,049	$242,970,049	$185 mil	5

Notable Film Closings

Title	Domestic Gross (Cume)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Budget
The Conjuring 2	$102,470,008	$319,470,008	$40 mil
Now You See Me 2	$65,075,540	$320,903,506	$90 mil

As always /r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.

Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at /r/moviesboxoffice.

Submitted August 29, 2016 at 11:25PM by mi-16evil http://ift.tt/2bMllI6