The forecast has dimmed significantly for the holiday weekend’s new wide releases: DreamWorks Pictures and Reliance Entertainment’s romantic drama “The Light Between Oceans” and 20th Century Fox’s sci-fi mystery “Morgan” both suffered steep downgrades compared to estimates made last week.
Neither film could crack the top five, as Stage 6 Films and Screen Gems holdover “Don’t Breathe” topped the box office for its second straight weekend.
The scary movie grossed an estimated $19.6 million from 3,051 locations during the extra long four-day holiday weekend. That’s up by nearly $7 million compared with estimates set last week. “Don’t Breathe” grossed $4.2 million on Friday and $6 million on Saturday.
In its fifth week in theaters, Warner Bros. comic book hit “Suicide Squad” had an easy time ending the weekend on Monday at No. 2, earning an estimated $12.8 million.
From there, “Pete’s Dragon,” “Kubo and the Two Strings” and “Sausage Party” rounded out the top five (see the list below).
Even though titles new and old have an extra day to amass earnings during the four-day weekend, it was a pretty low-grossing holiday.
The results shouldn’t put too much of a dent in the season’s overall performance, since Labor Day weekend is historically a low-grossing period. Last year’s highest performer was “War Room,” which made just $13.4 million over the four days.
With summer-season grosses neck and neck with last year’s, 2016 still has a shot at finishing higher than 2015, the second-biggest summer on record. As of Friday, summer 2016 was up 2.59 percent year-over-year when measuring the 118 days following the first Friday in May, according to comScore.
When comScore appraises the season based on May 1 through the equivalent day on the calendar, 2016 is still up slightly, by 1.02 percent.
But the summer’s final tally isn’t being helped by “Morgan,” which came in at an estimated $2.4 million during the four-day box office — down from previous predictions setting it between $6 and $8 million.
It only made $695,000 on Saturday and $615,000 on Friday.
That’s unsettling news, even though the sci-fi film was produced for a modest $8 million.
It has a mediocre CinemaScore of C+, reflecting the sentiment of those surveyed who watched on opening night. Its Rotten Tomatoes score, measuring the consensus among critics, isn’t much better, at 43 percent.
Debuting on 2,020 screens, “Morgan” stars Kate Mara as a corporate consultant on a top-secret mission, tasked with deciding the fate of a potentially dangerous humanoid girl. It marks director Luke Scott’s feature-length debut.
Meanwhile, “The Light Between Oceans” grossed $5.9 million over the long holiday, down from just less than $9 million. Debuting on 1,500 screens, the drama was produced for $20 million.
The film, which grossed $1.4 million on Friday and $1.7 million on Saturday, earned a 61 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore.
Starring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz, the film revolves around a lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia as they raise a baby they’ve rescued from an adrift rowboat. Based on a novel by M.L. Stedman, the film was directed and written by Derek Cianfrance (“The Place Beyond the Pines,” “Blue Valentine”).
The Top Five (Four-Day Estimate):
1. “Don’t Breathe” (Sony) — $19.6 million in Week 2 ($55 million total)
2. “Suicide Squad” (Warner Bros.) — $12.8 million in Week 5 ($300.2 million total)
3. “Pete’s Dragon” (Disney) — $8.6 million in Week 4 ($66.3 million total)
4. “Kubo and the Two Strings” (Focus) — $8.5 million in Week 3 ($36.4 million total)
5. “Sausage Party” (Sony) — $6.5 million in Week 4 ($89.6 million total)