By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The horror thriller "Don't Breathe" topped the box office for the second straight week, while several new releases struggled to find traction over a typically sleepy Labor Day weekend at North American movie theaters.
The Sony Screen Gems release made an estimated $15.7 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. The R-rated "Don't Breathe," about an ill-considered home invasion of a blind man, is on pace to make $19.4 million over the four-day holiday weekend. Produced for just $10 million, the film has made $51.1 million in total.
Its success spelled doom for the other horror film trying to gain a foothold: "Morgan," a low-budget science-fiction thriller directed by Ridley Scott's son, Luke Scott. Opening on more than 2,000 screens, it bombed with just $2 million.
Also torpedoed was the Robert De Niro-Edgar Ramirez boxing drama "Hands of Stone," about Panamanian boxer Robert Duran. It made just $1.3 million while expanding to 2,011 theaters, marking the latest in a string of disappointments for the Weinstein Co.
The DreamWorks drama "The Light Between the Oceans," starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, debuted with a modest $5 million a day after it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The period film, directed by Derek Cianfrance, stars the real-life couple as newlyweds living at a remote Australian lighthouse. Its budget was about $20 million.
The poor performing new releases enabled Warner Bros.' "Suicide Squad" to hold second place at the box office with $10 million. Despite rough reviews, the supervillain team-up film has shown decent legs in theaters, making nearly $300 million domestically.
Monday will mark the end of Hollywood's summer. According to comScore, the season will come in almost exactly tied with last year's $4.5 billion. Despite a rash of underperforming sequels and a number of high-profile disappointments , the overall box office is stable.
Heading into a fall that includes some seemingly surefire blockbusters such as "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," ''Doctor Strange" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," the 2016 box office is running 5.7 percent ahead of last year.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Tuesday.
1. "Don't Breathe," $15.7 million ($5.3 million international).
2. "Suicide Squad," $10 million ($11.8 million international).
3. "Pete's Dragon," $6.5 million ($3.3 million international).
4. "Kubo and the Two Strings," $6.5 million ($1.7 million international).
5. "Sausage Party," $5.3 million ($4.6 million international).
6. "The Light Between Oceans," $5 million.
7. "Bad Moms," $4.7 million ($5 million international).
8. "War Dogs," $4.7 million ($3.6 million international).
9. "Hell or High Water," $4.5 million.
10. "Mechanic: Resurrection," $4.3 million ($7.6 million international).
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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore:
1. "Star Trek Beyond," $37 million.
2. "The Secret Life of Pets," $17.3 million.
3. "Jason Bourne," $12 million.
4. "Suicide Squad," $11.8 million.
5. "Ice Age: Collision Course," $8.2 million.
6. "Mechanic: Resurrection," $7.6 million.
7. "Finding Dory," $6.3 million.
8. "Lights Out," $5.4 million.
9. "Don't Breathe," $5.3 million.
10. "Ben-Hur," $5.2 million.
Review: Director John Crowley’s “We Live In Time”
It's not hard to spend a few hours watching Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield fall and be in love. In "We Live In Time," filmmaker John Crowley puts the audience up close and personal with this photogenic British couple through the highs and lows of a relationships in their 30s.
Everyone starts to think about the idea of time, and not having enough of it to do everything they want, at some point. But it seems to hit a lot of us very acutely in that tricky, lovely third decade. There's that cruel biological clock, of course, but also careers and homes and families getting older. Throw a cancer diagnosis in there and that timer gets ever more aggressive.
While we, and Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh), do indeed live in time, as we're constantly reminded in big and small ways — clocks and stopwatches are ever-present, literally and metaphorically — the movie hovers above it. The storytelling jumps back and forth through time like a scattershot memory as we piece together these lives that intersect in an elaborate, mystical and darkly comedic way: Almut runs into Tobias with her car. Their first chat is in a hospital hallway, with those glaring fluorescent lights and him bruised and cut all over. But he's so struck by this beautiful woman in front of him, he barely seems to care.
I suppose this could be considered a Lubitschian "meet-cute" even if it knowingly pushes the boundaries of our understanding of that romance trope. Before the hit, Tobias was in a hotel, attempting to sign divorce papers and his pens were out of ink and pencils kept breaking. In a fit of near-mania he leaves, wearing only his bathrobe, to go to a corner store and buy more. Walking back, he drops something in the street and bang: A new relationship is born. It's the... Read More