Weekend Box Office: Sully Stays Afloat, Snowden Sinks

Weekend Box Office: September 16 - 18. 2016

Three new movies rolled into theaters this weekend, but none of them pushed into double digits, and none were able to top last weekend's number one.

Sully held the top spot for a second weekend in a row, dropping less than 40% from last week. The biopic added $22 million to its now $70 million domestic total, helping push it past its $60 million red line.

Blair Witch came in as the top newcomer, banking $9 million at second place. That's a mixed bag for the franchise revival flick. It's well above the miniscule $5 million production budget, but lower than the last movie in the franchise, Blair Witch 2. It opened at $13 million in 2000. Of course, both those movies opened higher than the original Blair Witch Project which started out with a $1.5 million debut n 1999. That original, however, went on to bank over $140 million domestically, against a $60,000 production budget, making it the most profitable movie run by percentage of all time.

Bridget Jones is back, but far too late. It's been fourteen years sine the last Bridget Jones movie, six years since the last Renee Zellweger movie, and at least seven years since the last good Patrick Dempsey movie. The $8 million that Bridget Jones's Baby made for its third place start came from the handful of Grey's Anatomy fans who needed a hit following McDreamy's departure from the show last year.

If there's a politically charged movie to be made that no one wants to see, Oliver Stone is working on it. His latest thriller Snowden landed in fourth place with just $8 million against a $40 million debut, with no help in sight from the international market. The movie is set to move on to the Russian market soon where it is expected to have a low profile. No word yet on when it might head to theaters in Cuba.

For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:

Weekend Box Office: September 16 - 18. 2016