After three straight weekends at No. 1, Warner Bros. comic book hit “Suicide Squad” is finally going down.
Tracking at roughly $13 million, Screen Gems and Stage 6 Films horror movie “Don’t Breathe” is poised to dethrone the anti-hero action film starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jared Leto at this weekend’s box office.
Given that the percentage drop trajectory for “Suicide Squad” has been in line with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” the tentpole movie will be lucky to make $10 million in its fourth weekend, leaving room for the scary flick to come out on top.
It remains to be seen whether “Squad” will fight off other newcomers, Summit Premiere action film “Mechanic: Resurrection” and Fuego Films and Epicentral Studios biopic “Hands of Stone” — both expected to come in under $10 million.
“Don’t Breathe,” produced by horror guru Sam Raimi and directed and co-written by Fede Alvarez, stars Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto and Stephen Lang in a story about a group of friends who are proven terribly wrong when they assume a wealthy blind man will be an easy mark for a robbery.
The film is being distributed by Sony, whose estimates of $11 million-to-$12 million are just under what industry trackers are predicting. Opening in more than 3,000 locations (and 2,300 during Thursday night previews), the R-rated horror thriller was produced for under $10 million and has received positive reviews so far — with a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 88 percent.
Given that modestly-budgeted scary movies, including “The Shallows” and “Purge: Election Year,” have opened strongly this summer, there’s no reason why “Don’t Breathe” won’t follow suit.
And this is the time of year other similar R-rated movies have opened nicely int he past. “As Above, So Below” debuted to $8 million; “You’re Next” netted $7 million in its first weekend; “The Gift” got $11 million; and “Sinister 2” scooped up $10 million.
“Hands of Stone” stars Robert De Niro as legendary trainer Ray Arcel and Edgar Ramírez as famed boxer Roberto Duran. The drama, based on true events, isn’t faring so well among critics and has a low 57 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. But that could easily change as more reviews stream in.
The film’s opening estimates were recently downgraded as it is looking to open just above $5 million. Given that it is debuting in just 800 theaters, that’s actually not bad at all. Though the Weinstein Co., the film’s distributors, declined to comment on the movie’s production budget.
Finally, R-rated action sequel “Mechanic: Resurrection” has Jason Statham reprising his role as reformed hitman Arthur Bishop, forced to reignite his killing skills in order to save the woman he loves from kidnappers.
It’s positioned to come in under $10 million from 2,200 screens, with studio estimates set a bit lower at somewhere between $6 million and $8 million. Seeing as the film is very modestly budgeted, anywhere in that range is a fine opening for the title.