Top 5 Breakdown

1. Suicide Squad – £11,209,442 -NE

 2D – £7,945,354 (70.8%) – 3D – £2,254,653 (20.1%) – IMAX /3D – £1,009,434 (9%)

First the positives had biggest August opening ever and the biggest opening day in August £4.7m

Had the fourth biggest opening of the year behind Batman Vs Superman £14.62m, Captain America: Civil War £14.46m and Deadpool £13.79m. Hard to compare with all three of them as BvS and CACW were 12A while Deadpool had two days of previews.

Guardians of the Galaxy is the most obvious comparison film to Suicide Squad which opened two years ago with £6.36m, including £1.37m in previews but benefited being a 12A. While GOTG was seen as a positive opening £11.2m for Suicide Squad was seen as a disappointment but both are based on comic-book non fans knew very little about. Suicide Squad opening was seen much more negativity because of the trailers being viewed so many times the poor reception for Batman Vs Superman and Deadpool but away from those Suicide Squad had a decent start the problem is these films are so front-loaded.

Had the ninth biggest superhero opening of all time and eighth biggest Fri-Sun ahead of Deadpool but while Deadpool had legs Suicide Squad was very front loaded. After having the biggest opening Friday taking £4.7m dropped heavily on Saturday and Sunday once word of mouth spread wasn’t helped by the sunny weather either.

Recent UK openings for DC adaptions

Batman Vs Superman	March 2016	£14.62m
The Dark Knight Rises	July 2012	£14.36m
Man of Steel	June 2013	£11.19m
The Dark Knight	June 2008	£11.19m
Batman Begins	June 2005	£4.42m
Superman Returns	July 2006	£4.33m
Watchmen	March 2009	£3.24m
Green Lantern	June 2011	£2.41m

The big question is how will it drop next weekend as will expectedly drop similar to Batman Vs Superman which dropped 68.1% in its second weekend (had similar scathing reviews and poor word of mouth) would see it take £3.58m while BvS held top in its second weekend Pete’s Dragon will be tougher competition than Eddie the Eagle especially being summer holidays.

Earlier in the year Suicide Squad and Independence Day: Resurgence were two of the most anticipated films of the year for months Suicide Squad has been generating huge coverage on social media but that means nothing if the product isn’t good enough.

While Independence Day: Resurgence poor performance was a surprise as film-wise it’s a popcorn movie similar to the original but due to poor dating opening Suicide Squad is very different it is crazy to say a film opening with £11.2m is disappointing but films are so front-loaded these days.

After the success of 2015 with some massive films 2016 was always looking disappointing in comparison that sad there were many films on paper that looked like they could be huge successes but the problem has been an overload of comic-book movies that have underwhelmed and unnecessary sequels. The next few years have more of the same 2017-2019 brings sequels to many hits of 2014-2015.

Fox, Sony, Paramount and Warner Bros need some way to deal with Disney who followed up their record breaking 2015 with Finding Dory, Captain America: Civil War, The Jungle Book and Zootropolis and with Doctor Strange and Rogue One still to come and Beauty and the Beast, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Star Wars Episode VIII in 2017.

Second weekend % drops for selective DC and Marvel releases

X-Men Apocalypse	2016	65.4%	£2.52m
Captain America: Civil War	2016	66.6%	£4.79m
Batman Vs Superman	2016	68.1%	£4.66m
Thor: The Dark World	2013	66%	£2.91m
Iron Man	2008	64%	£1.91m
Deadpool	2016	59%	£5.69m
Man of Steel	2013	55%	£5.07m
Avengers: Age of Ultron	2015	53%	£8.59m
Avengers Assemble	2012	49%	£8.12m
The Dark Knight Rises	2012	49%	£7.27m
Superman Returns	2006	46%	£2.41m
The Dark Knight	2008	40%	£6.37m
Batman Begins	2005	34%	£2.92m

 Several months ago there were reports of very positive reaction from test screenings of Suicide Squad most would have thought this version would have been director David Ayers cut but he has said that the released movie is his cut of the film the cut which was test screened which was more in tone to the trailers was the cut Warner Bros made but needed much more reshoots which would have costed millions.

The production story is similar to last year’s Fantastic Four Warner Bros hired David Ayers who directed Street Kings and End of Watch costing $7m which was his breakthrough film to directing Fury which cost $68m to a film costing almost three times that which was similar to Josh Trank who went from Chronicle similarly low budget film to a budget 10 times that for Fantastic Four $120m. Often studios hire directors who haven’t made big budget effects films sometimes they work Colin Trevorrow Jurassic World and sometimes doesn’t James Bobin Alice Through the Looking Glass.

The studio pressure for David Ayers was similar to that of Josh Trank who after directed the fantastic low budget film Chronicle signed to do Fantastic Four reboot the first teasers were great and Disney signed him to do a Star Wars spin-off. But then news of a troubled post-production Disney fired him from the spin-off. Which was similar to David Ayers he fired and rehired CAA agency in June at the same time, Warner Bros refused to fund David Ayers new film Bright starring Will Smith instead the $90m film was acquired by Netflix.

Has always been conflicts between studios and filmmakers which has become more public knowledge with social media and the internet with these mega-movies having huge budgets and tight deadlines there is more and more pressure on the studio and the director to do better than came before.

While the actors will go on and make another film the executives responsible at the studio and the director will take the blame. It’s the director who is often cast aside after a failure 25 years ago Bruce Willis teamed up with director Michael Lehmann who had directed two low budget hits Meet the Applegates and Heathers was signed to direct $65m Hudson Hawk which was a massive failure Michael Lehmann made a couple of low budget films Airheads and The Truth About Cats & Dogs after. While Bruce Wills who had starred in the massive turkey The Bonfire of the Vanities the year before went on to make many more films.

Same story can be told for many other directors like Martin Brest who directed Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Scent of a Woman and Meet Joe Black directed Gigli in 2003 starring ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in 2003 hasn’t made a film since but similar to Bruce Willis Ben Affleck went straight off to act in many more films.

While Suicide won’t be a flop as Hudson Hawk or Gigli were its budget was probably three times the size of those films similar to Waterworld 21 years ago which many still believe is a flop while not being a smash hit didn’t loose money after global box office and home entertainment but while that is watchable on repeat viewings doubt Suicide Squad will be and thats part of the problem with so many films nowadays they aren’t made for repeat viewings.

When I used to work as a projectionist at Rank Film Distributors and 20th Century Fox 20 years ago would often screen the same film 20 or more times some would be enjoyable learn lines Shawshank Redemption or Moulin Rouge others were hard viewing which has become the norm with most films these days thy aren’t made for repeat viewings. 

Had Batman Vs Superman been better critically received and bigger at the box office there would have been less pressure on Suicide Squad as it was similar to Guardians of the Galaxy a comic-book that wasn’t well known to none comic-book fans.

But as soon as BvS disappointed the pressure grew on Suicide Squad to be the film DC needed wasn’t helped by Deadpool which must have made Warner think they had something similar with Suicide Squad which was one of their many mistakes what made Deadpool different was it was unique instead of Warner trying to make Suicide Squad into Deadpool it should have left to be its own film.

As with so many films Suicide Squad was dated ad then the film had to be released for that date Warner Bros believed there was enough time but it was always rushed from the start David Ayers wrote the script in 6 weeks.

Suicide Squad trailers received massive viewings online with last year’s Comic-Con First Look 68.59m, trailer #1 38.06m, trailer #2 18m, and final Comic Con 2016 15m the problem was the trailers were better than the film.

This is nothing new as even with the worst films editors can cut together enough footage to make the film look good. Saying that with Ghostbuster reboot trailers were terrible but film wasn’t nearly as bad (wasn’t good) but wasn’t as bad as might have believed from all but the final international trailer. When you cut dozens of shots together adding lines of script out of context it’s easier to make a fun enjoyable 2.5-minute short film the hard part is trying to turn the million feet of film into that same film.

Warner Bros have had a lot of trouble with DC films since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy ended in 2012 Man of Steel in 2013 was disappointing and then Batman Vs Superman and Suicide Squad have both underwhelmed. In the same years Marvel has had huge success with Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man and Captain America: Civil War.

But when Disney first tried to get into the comic-book business with Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty has talked about a sequel for over 20 years) and The Rocketeer (Disney has recently announced plans to reboot) in the early 90’s had they been a success i’m sure Disney would of gotten into the comic-book business before they brought Marvel in 2009. 

When Marvel announced in 2005 they would self-finance a slate of comic-book films and Paramount Pictures would release the 10 films no one could of expected they would of become the success they did.  The ten Marvel characters in the arrangement were Captain America, The Avengers, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Cloak & Dagger, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack, and Shang-Chi. (some of whom took many more years to feature and get their own movies).

Maybe Warner Bros need another approach for DC Universe which we saw so successfully in 2014 with The Lego Movie and the trailers for Lego Batman Movie as they had the lighter tone and the humour that Marvel films have had which has made them so successful with Lego Batman Movie likely to be the best DC film since The Dark Knight Rises.

 

Warner Bros have suffered from leaks of Suicide Squad Comic Con footage from 2015 and also the teaser for Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk but strangely Marvel or Lucasfilm haven’t suffered similar issues making you wonder if there are Hydra double agents working within Warner Bros. Many would think that was crazy but they are also probably the same people who started a petition to close film algorithm website for negative reviews for Suicide Squad which continues the conspiracy film critics are being bribed by Disney to give DC films poor reviews.

There could be some comic- book fatigue setting in after Deadpool, Batman Vs Superman, Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse already released and for the initiated comic-book geek they do feel very similar. In Captain America Civil War have superheroes fighting each other which felt like the Transformers fighting each other with the human characters meaningless to the events. In previous comic-book films as in in Casino Royale you saw that these people are still human and aren’t invincible which was similar in Real Steel which could of easily been another Transformers robot fight robots film but was much more as had human interaction.

But with news Marvel and DC have more than 17,000 characters in their libraries there are enough for another 3,400 years.

After the disappointing performance of many summer films this year it won’t get any better anytime soon with infinite comic-book movies alongside Star Wars, Furious and Transformers films (fortunately we might not get the endless Ghostbusters movies Amy Pascal threatened us a few weeks ago as Hollywood Reporter reports the film could have a $70m loss). If Universal get their way Jason Bourne and I’m sure Disney will give us infinite Strange Magic and Howard the Duck films too making going to the cinema feel like a mix between Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow. Was claimed Phil Conners live Groundhog Day  12,403 times and in the book All You Need is Kill Edge of Tomorrow is based on William Cage lived his day 160 times

Doctor Strange is the final comic-book movie for 2016;

2017 brings many more Hugh Jackman’s last untitled Wolverine, Ghost in the Shell, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok and Justice League.

 2. Finding Dory – £3,952,620 – total £20,221,894

 2D took £3,469,389 (87.7%) – total £16,858,124 (83.6%)– 3D took £483,232 (12.2%) total £3,363,770 (16.6%)

With the school summer holidays now in full swing films box office is more evened out across the week so while finding Dory suffered a big decline over the weekend due to the sunshine which was similar to Inside Out.

Even with the extra competition of The BFG, Finding Dory had a very strong Mon-Thurs even better than last year’s Inside Out which took £6.048m which had taken £16.96m after 10 days. Finding Dory took £16.2m over its opening 7 days seeing it double its Fri-Sun £8.12m box office Mon-Thurs showing how weekday box office during school holidays is as lucrative as weekend box office.

Very shortly Finding Dory will go ahead of Brave £22.16m, Toy Story £22.49m and Wall-E £22.9m and Zootropolis £23.61m and with little competition over the next few weeks will likely overtake The Secret Life of Pets by next weekend to be the biggest animated film of 2016.

3. Jason Bourne – £2,436,698 – total £14,049,407

After Star Trek Beyond dropped heavily against the arrival of Jason Bourne two weeks ago it was always expected Jason Bourne would do similar against Suicide Squad dropping 67.9% in its second weekend.

Suffering the biggest second weekend drop of the series including The Bourne Legacy its box office is still ahead of The Bourne Ultimatum £12.9m but cannot compare the box office with the film released 9 years ago.  

Has overtaken the final £11.39m box office of The Bourne Identity £7.71m, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Legacy £10.86m but unlikely to match the box office of The Bourne Ultimatum £23.42m which shod up the disappointment it is.

Last year Mission Impossible Rogue Nation dropped 54.9% in its second weekend taking similar £2.4m and £11.02m and went on to take £21.07m which is what Jason Bourne is likely to take.

The Bourne Identity dropped 49% in its second weekend taking £1.1m with £4.19m with Signs opening #1 with £3.76m.

The Bourne Supremacy dropped 42% in its second weekend taking £1.56m with £6.1m with The Village opening #1 with £2.94m

The Bourne Ultimatum dropped 56% in its second weekend taking £2.86m with £12.9m holding top with Knocked Up opening #2 with £1.58m.

The Bourne Legacy dropped 65% in its second weekend taking £1.59m with £7.8m dropping down to third.

4. The BFG £1,697,159 – total £20,188,910

2D took £1,590,472 (93.7%)– total £16,467,694 (81.5%) – 3D took £105,964 (6.2%) – total £3,436,870 (17.1%) – IMAX/3D £703 (0.04%) – total £284,346 (1.4%)

Down 49.5% in its third weekend but its weekend drop-off similar to Finding Dory is unimportant as it has had another fantastic Mon-Thurs at the box office adding £4m. As with the summer holidays box office isn’t concentrated on just weekend for family films.

Thanks to school holidays The BFG has shot ahead of Paddington which had taken £14.29m after three weeks taking 70% more over its third weekend £2,894,125 than The BFG.

After three weeks on release Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory took £2.88m and £26.1m total having limited competition from Herbie: Fully Loaded which took £672,674 and £2.25m in comparison the two new releases were The Island opening with £1.48m and Crash with £818,604.

The big question will be how Pete’s Dragon affects Finding Dory and The BFG as the original wasn’t nearly as loved or remembered as Disney’s other re-imagining’s and could suffer similar fate as The BFG had in the US opening only weeks after Finding Dory.

The BFG could overtake Paddington’s £34.07m 2014 box office if it continues to perform strongly but Paddington will get a chance to reclaim his crown next November in its sequel Paddington which faces much tougher competition than the Penguins of Madagascar with Coco Pixar’s first original  animated film since 2015’s Inside Out.

5. Star Trek Beyond £889,632 – total £12,933,993

2D took £842,261 (94.6%) total £8,898,558 (68.7%) 3D took £47,371 (5.3%) total £2,316,876 (17.9%)

Dropping heavily 61.8% in its third weekend similar to Jason Bourne which was expected with the arrival of Suicide Squad with the three films targeting male audiences was always expected they would each suffer big drops in their second weekends so was a strange decision by the studios to open the three over consecutive weeks.

In its third weekend Star Trek in May 2009 took £1,645,238 and £15,396,776

Star Trek into Darkness in May 2013 took £1,948,810 and £19,419,669

While those two Star Trek films opened in the middle of May Star Trek Beyond benefited from opened at the start of the school holidays so its performance is even more disappointing. But Star Trek Beyond was a very disappointing forgettable film inferior to both Star Trek and Star Trek into Darkness was surprising the positive reviews it received as there was nothing new or memorable it was purely a popcorn film surprising that it has taken more than Independence Day: Resurgence which was a far more enjoyable film if similarly, instantly forgettable.  

Paramount have already announced Star Trek 4 which will likely be released in 2019 which is already has dated The Lego Movie 2, Godzilla 2, Fast & Furious 9, Untitled Avengers Movie, Incredibles 2, Bad Boys 4, Transformers 7, Indiana Jones 5 and Star Wars IX.

Paramount had a poor 2015 but 2016 is looking even worse with their biggest film of the year still Daddy’s Home released on Boxing Day last year with £16.71m unlikely Star Trek Beyond will beat it.

Their remaining films for 2016 are Ben Hur which has received little buzz and delayed almost 6 months from its February release date and expected to flop. Jack Reacher 2 the first film did ok taking £9.3m in 2013 but unlikely sequel will do much better. Rings the long delayed third film of the film based on the Japanese horror which feels so dated now as original film person watched a VHS recording which kills viewer seven days after watching. Paramount have opted to open the weekend after Halloween to open due to Ouija: Origin of Evil and Doctor Strange opening over the previous two weekends.

Their last film for 2016 is the generic titled second world war thriller Allied stars Brad Pitt and directed by Robert Zemeckis opened November the first trailer is expected with Ben Hur later this month. Its Brad Pitt’s first lead film since Fury which was a moderate success and World War Z which took £14.4m in 2013 starring in the sequel released next June. Allied is sandwiched between Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them and Moana.

Paramount Pictures 2017 slate is their strongest for many years going down the similar sequel route Universal Pictures have done this year with a line-up full of sequels and reboots Friday the 13^th, XXX3, World War Z 2, Transformers 5 but in amongst them have God Particle, Ghost in the Shell and Baywatch along with Denzel Washington’s Fences Jan/Feb releasing targeting Oscars and BAFTAs and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing release currently TBD.

Other box office news:

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £21,178,761 down 9.7% from last weekend £23,455,514; 

Weekend was up a massive 110.6% from same weekend last year (£10,055,462) when Fantastic Four £2,700,000 and The Gift £584,293 opened.

Next weekend 2015: Pixels £2,660,772, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. £1,448,298, Trainwreck £931,981 and Absolutely Anything £487,147 opened.

Complete UK Box office top 10 – August 5^th – 7^th 2016

 

 

 

US Box Office

1. Warner Bros – Suicide Squad – opens with $135.1m; after receiving scathing reviews despite strong buzz for months opened strongly on Thursday midnights with $20.5m more than Batman Vs Superman and Guardians of the Galaxy taking $65.2m on Friday in comparison BvS opened with $81.5m on Friday while GOTG opened with $37.8m. But Saturday is where it started falling away taking $38.8m compared to 450.6m for BvS and $30.9m for GOTG along with B+ CinemaScore it will likely drop similar to BvS $69.1m in its second weekend with a second weekend of around $40.5m with teens likely to prefer a talking hotdog next weekend instead.

2. Universal Pictures – Jason Bourne – dropped 61.6% – $22.7m – $103.4m; after mixed reviews and Suicide Squad opening targeting similar audience always expected to drop heavily; in comparison The Bourne Ultimatum dropped $52.5m with $32.8m and $131.5m, The Bourne Supremacy dropped 54% $24.1m and $98.8m, The Bourne Identity dropped 44.4% $15.1m and $54.3m while last year’s Mission Impossible Rogue Nation dropped $48.7m $28.5m and $107.7m.

 

3. STX – Bad Moms – dropped 40.4% – $14.2m- $50.1m: with the second best drop-off of the top 10 holding well in its second weekend; it is STX  first real success at the box office they have big plans to take on the studios as so many others have tried over the years but have and ace in the hole after announcing Chinese investment in STX  this week. STX currently release their films through  output deals but will open UK distribution next year again like the US so many companies over the years have tried to launch UK distributor but either have closed or been acquired by foreign companies as Redbus with Lionsgate, Optimum Releasing Studiocanal, Electric first by Alliance to become Momentum and then eOne.  

4. Universal – The Secret Life of Pets – dropped 38.9% – $11.5m – $319.5m; will shortly overtake last year’s Minions to climb into top ten biggest animated films in US

        Zootopia and Inside Out in its sights Universal have dated sequel for release in 2018.

5. Paramount Pictures – Star Trek Beyond – dropped $58.8m – $10.2m – $127.9m; In comparison Star Trek into Darkness and Star Trek both took $184.5m in its third weekend.

6. EuropaCorp – Nine Lives – opens with $6.5m; receiving a B+ CinemaScore this 80s body swap comedy was about 30 years late. What was surprising with Nine Lives  at UK preview screening audiences were in hysterics but was then slated by critics which so often happens with film press screenings some people said there was a conspiracy with DC films against Marvel but there is more with audiences loving films in screenings and then hating the films in reviews.

7. Warner Bros – Lights Out – dropped 44.4% – $6.1m – $54.7m; another low-budget horror success for New Line/Warner Bros with a budget of only $5m.

8. Lionsgate – Nerve – dropped 48.1% – $4.9m – $26.8m.

9. Sony Pictures – Ghostbusters – dropped 52.6% – $4.8m – $116.7m; after all the doom and gloom one positive for the reboot is it has overtaken the box office of Ghostbusters 2 but of course that was 27 years ago; much was made of the sexism and misogyny centered around Ghostbusters reboot so it is strange that the Halloween costumes look more like they should be sold at Ann Summers.

10. 20^th Century Fox – Ice Age: Collusion Course – dropped 60.9% – $4.3m – $53.5m;