After six weeks in theaters, the female-driven “Bad Moms” became the first R-rated comedy of the year to cross $100 million, marking young studio STX’s biggest hit. The film went on to earn nearly $180 million worldwide — not bad for a movie that was made for a modest $20 million.
“Deadpool” is a comedy wrapped inside of a comic book action movie — and it crossed $100 million months before “Bad Moms.” In fact, it’s the highest-grossing R-rated movie of the year with $363.1 million in North America and the fifth highest grossing of 2016 overall, just behind “The Jungle Book.” Needless to say, the film that took Ryan Reynolds years to bring to the big screen shocked prognosticators with its eventual $782.6 million in global box office returns.
“Boo! A Madea Halloween” topped the box office two weekends in a row when it came out. Its success even seemed to shock its creator, Tyler Perry, who told TheWrap, “It’s been 18 years and to see people still coming, it’s very moving to me still because I certainly didn’t think I would do it this long.”
Sci-fi drama “Arrival” proved it’s more than an awards season play when it crossed $100 million worldwide in its third week in theaters.
R-rated animated movies always had a hard time surpassing the $55-million range — until Seth Rogen’s “Sausage Party” shattered that barrier, making nearly $100 million domestically over the summer and topping $140 million worldwide.
Modestly-budgeted home invasion thriller “Don’t Breathe” seemed to come out of left field, opening to a whopping estimated $26.1 million — more than double predictions and nearly triple its $10-million production budget. Now, that’s scary good.
“The Secret Life of Pets” shattered expectations when it opened to a massive $103.2 million — the sixth highest debut for an animated feature. It’s currently the third highest grossing movie of the year with $368.2 million.
The bunnies of “Zootopia” hopped over the global $1 billion mark at the box office in early June, making it the second movie of 2016 to cross the 10-figure threshold (the other being fellow Disney title “Captain America: Civil War”). That’s some bang up business, especially since the movie is a non-sequel — a new, original idea.
Taut summertime thriller “The Shallows” was made for just $17 million. But the flick, which features Blake Lively outwitting a deadly shark, proved to have sea legs when it made back its production budget during opening weekend and went on to earn nearly $120 million worldwide.
Bank heist Western “Hell or High Water” hit that rare sweet spot for an arthouse film — garnering critical acclaim, awards season buzz and also some solid box office. As of early October, it was the No. 1 highest grossing limited release movie of the year and has amassed an impressive $27 million.
You may not have seen the sci-fi comedy “Lazer Team,” but what made it a box office surprise is that it made it to the box office at all. Made by popular web series creators Rooster Teeth, the movie’s crowd-funding campaign broke records on Indiegogo. The film went on to earn $1.2 million from just three weekends in a very limited release.
