BOX OFFICE: ‘BLAIR WITCH’ GETS LOST IN THE WOODS, ‘SULLY’ IS FLYING HIGH

It’s not much of a surprise to see Sully sitting at number one this Monday, it is somewhat of a shock to see how comfortably Warner’s hit remained seated there. While many expected Clint Eastwood’s latest to come in at around $20 million and perhaps still hold on to the top spot, it was also expected to face fierce competition from Lionsgate’s Blair Witch and Universal’s Bridget Jones’ Baby but both fell very short of expectations.

The big story this week must be Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch bringing in just under $10 million for what looked like a guaranteed hit mere weeks ago and Lionsgate would have been hoping for at least twice that revenue come today. Of all the factors determining its sub-par performance (poor reviews, horror fatigue, etc) perhaps the governing one has been an over-estimation of audiences fondness for the original. Despite the obvious importance of 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, it is a film that has aged poorly and has picked up few admirers in its subsequent years (it has a user rating of just 6.4 on IMDB, which is low for such an iconic piece of cinema) so maybe they would have been better off keeping its working title of ‘The Woods’ rather than cashing in up front on a franchise that audiences didn’t have much of an appetite for.

Likewise, Universal may be initially bemused by Bridget Jones’ Baby failing to deliver with just under 50% of its projection, in spite of its decent reviews. The studio perhaps also over-estimated the fondness for a fluffy rom-com in a post-Bridesmaid age where being coy about sex is -ironically- embarrassing in a world where Fifty Shades of Grey can shatter box office records. This one may have some staying power, though, as it likely lost some of its ordained over-35’s audience to Sully this weekend so it may not suffer that much of a drop-off next week.

The only new release to live up to expectations box office-wise was Oliver Stone’s Snowden which pulled in a respectable $8 million despite being short on hype and lukewarm reviews, whereas, last week’s $20 million earner When the Bough Breaks reaped its lack of both to suffer a 61% drop-off and finish outside the top 5.

Don’t Breathe managed to only fall to fifth as horror audiences failed to warm to the shaky cams of Blair Witch, while Suicide Squad curiously and, perhaps, perplexingly still has the legs to muster up nearly $5 million to finish in seventh. The rest of the top ten is rounded off by family fare as The Wild Life, Kubo & The Two Strings, and Pete’s Dragon maintained steady business in a weekend that offered nothing new for young ones.