THE WEEKEND ACTUALS

	Film	Weekend	Opening Weekend	Current Gross
	Jason Bourne	$59.215 million	$59.215 million	$59.215 million
	Star Trek Beyond	$24.754 million	$59.253 million	$106.474 million
	Bad Moms	$23.817 million	$23.817 million	$23.817 million
	The Secret Life of Pets	$18.915 million	$104.352 million	$296.882 million
	Ice Age: Collision Course	$10.988 million	$21.373 million	$42.598 million

Matt Damon certainly showed us. While it was confidently predicted across the board that Damon’s fourth outing as the action hero in Jason Bourne would be a success, no one expected the large numbers this film raked in over the weekend. It’s especially surprising in a summer that has, for the most part, seen relatively low numbers. There have been exceptions, of course, such as Pixar’s Finding Dory, but overall it’s been a weak time for Hollywood’s box office recently. However, this weekend Damon proved that star power still holds weight in show biz. Jason Bourne is the second highest opening weekend for the franchise, coming in just behind Damon’s last outing in the role, The Bourne Ultimatum, which earned $69 million in its opening weekend. It’s most telling when compared to the last film in the franchise, though, which starred Jeremy Renner, rather than Damon. The Bourne Legacy, released in 2012, made $38 million in its opening weekend, nearly $22 million less than Jason Bourne. While not necessarily an indicator for films at large, the number one film of the weekend showed that audiences do in part care who they’re going to see in theaters.

Star Trek Beyond’s 60% drop during its second week could perhaps be partially explained by Jason Bourne’s surprisingly high box office. It was made clear over the weekend which action flick audiences were more eager to see. Just barely making it into second place, its intake has reason to give pause due to its $185 million budget and the fact that its two predecessors, Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, both  $145 million over their second weekends. Furthermore, 2009’s Star Trek had a $150 million budget and while Into Darkness had a larger budget of $190 million, it crossed that domestically with $228 million and made a global total of $467 million. When international numbers are taken into account, Beyond will fare fine. It’s already at $161 million globally, but it may fall short of the two previous films’ totals and that might force Paramount to make some changes for the already announced fourth film.

With Star Trek Beyond’s low earnings, Bad Moms was able to make a much stronger showing over the weekend, even if it made exactly as much as it was predicted to make. With an audience make-up of 82 percent female and 48 percent over the age of 34, Bad Moms did an excellent job of appealing to its specific crowd. It’s become the fourth-highest R-rated opening weekend of the year (behind, of course, Deadpool, as well as The Conjuring 2 and The Purge: Election Year) and should have no problem earning a decent profit against its $20 million budget. It likely won’t top other female-led comedies such as Bridesmaids ($169 million total) and Spy ($110 million), however, but it should be able to compete with Tina Fey-Amy Poehler projects like Baby Mama ($60 million) and Sisters ($87 million). If it’s able to hold on in the upcoming weeks, it should have a decent shelf life, but there are big films just around the corner and Bad Moms will likely become overshadowed quickly.

The remaining two of the top five continue the story of the summer: animation is king and it’s here to stay. The Secret Life of Pets especially has proven to be a force to be reckoned with. It made nearly $4 million more than our prediction, going on to make almost $300 million domestically so far — which is, true, not approaching Finding Dory’s $469 million — but for not being a film under the Disney umbrella, it’s doing pretty all right for itself. Ice Age: Collision Course, meanwhile, might have landed in the top five, but only just barely. Both Lights Out and Ghostbusters, which took spots six and seven respectively, also made $10 million this weekend, and were only a few hundred thousand dollars short of beating out Collision Course. The fifth move in the Ice Age franchise dropped nearly 50 percent, which isn’t exactly saying much. It’s already making considerable less than the films in the franchise before it (except for its immediate predecessor, Ice Age: Continental Drift, which dropped 56 percent in its second week, but it also had an opening weekend of $46 million as compared to Collision Course’s $21 million) and is, at this point, a bona fide flop.

The aforementioned Lights Out has now made a respectable $42.8 million domestically on a $5 million budget, furthering the good year the horror genre has had so far. Ghostbusters, as well, crossed $100 million and now has a domestic total of $106 million. Globally, it’s made $158 million and has surpassed its $144 million. Sony Pictures will be much more confident about the film moving forward if its domestic total climbs to a stronger total, but it can’t be said that this film is a failure in the dramatic way it has been made out to be.

The remainder of the top ten consist of the under-performing Nerve in spot eight, making just $9.4 million for the weekend. It so far has a total of $15.5 million, which is less than expected, especially with its aggressive marketing campaign. Finally, favorites Finding Dory and The Legend of Tarzan round out the top ten, making $4 million and $2 million, respectively. They will likely be knocked out, after an admirable, stubborn fight of hanging in there, when Suicide Squad and Nine Lives are released this weekend.

(Source: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com. Starred figures are estimates. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor