Studio Weekend Estimates: ‘Jason Bourne’ Born Again w/ $60.0M; ‘Bad Moms’ Is Good w/ $23.4M; ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Claims Second Place w/ $24.0M

Universal’s Jason Bourne proved that the franchise still packs a punch, even a decade and a half after launching, with a first place opening weekend estimated at $60.0 million. The new action film was not the highest opening for the series, but the return of Matt Damon as the title character for the beloved series was enough to dominate this weekend with more than double its second-place competitor.

Jason Bourne, the fifth installment and fourth starring Damon, had an opening ranking squarely in the middle among the series. The three Damon movies ended with progressive largely cumulative domestic totals from the first to the second to the third installments. Unless the new movie holds on much better than expected in the weeks to come, which seems unlikely given the film’s mixed reviews, Jason Bourne looks likely to break that streak with a total below that of the two most recent installments.

On the one hand, it came in 13.3 percent behind the series-best opening of 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum (about 31.1 percent behind after adjusting Ultimatum for inflation) and also 18.0 percent behind the inflation-adjusted opening of 2004’s The Bourne Supremacy. On the other hand, it opened 48.4 percent above the inflation-adjusted opening of 2002’s original The Bourne Identity and 57.3 percent above the opening of 2012’s spinoff The Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner.

Paramount’s Star Trek Beyond fell a worrying 59.5 percent to an estimated $24.0 million but held onto second place from first place last weekend. That sharp drop was noticeably higher than the 46.9 and 42.8 second-weekend declines of 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness and 2009’s Star Trek. Combine the higher second-weekend drop with an opening weekend lower than for either of its two predecessors, and the result is Beyond‘s $105.72 million total through 10 days running 20.6 percent behind Into Darkness and 28.3 percent behind Star Trek through the same points.

STX Entertainment’s Bad Moms was anything but bad with an estimated $23.40 million opening for third place. The R-rated female-centered comedy starring Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell made back its $20 million budget in its opening weekend alone, with an 82 percent female audience and 48 percent over age 35 — not surprising given the plotline centering around mothers.

Its opening weekend was behind those of several other recent successful R-rated comedies aimed at women, coming in 22.2 percent behind the opening of last year’s Trainwreck, 40.1 percent behind 2013’s The Heat, and 10.8 percent behind 2011’s Bridesmaids. Regardless, with an A CinemaScore — the first for an R-rated comedy since The Hangover in 2009 — Bad Moms should play well for weeks to come.

Bad Moms started with $9.63 million on Friday (including $2.05 million from Thursday night shows), declined 18.5 percent to $7.84 million on Saturday, and dropped another 24.3 percent to $5.93 million on Sunday. This places its opening weekend to Friday ratio at an estimated 2.43 to 1.

Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets eased 38.5 percent to an estimated $18.21 million and fourth place. It’s now earned $296.17 million through four weekends, which is 22.6 percent ahead of Zootopia through the same point.

Warner Bros.’ horror Lights Out dropped 50.2 percent to an estimated $10.81 million and fifth place in its second weekend. That’s actually a mild decline for a horror film, a genre that consistently posts second-weekend drops of 60 percent or more. It’s now earned $42.87 million to date.

Fox’s animated sequel Ice Age: Collision Course dropped 50.9 percent to an estimated $10.50 million and sixth place. This was not the largest second-weekend drop in the franchise, coming ahead of the 56.2 percent plummet for 2012’s Ice Age: Continental Drift. But with only $42.10 million through two weekends, Collision Course will be lucky to reach even half of Continental Drift‘s $161.32 million total — and that was the lowest grossing of the four previous installments in the series.

Sony’s Ghostbusters went down 53.4 percent to $9.80 million and seventh place. It crossed the $100 million threshold this weekend, but with declines of 50 percent or more every weekend of its release so far, this movie is fading fast. It’s running about 33.0 percent and 33.9 percent behind the inflation-adjusted grosses of 1984’s Ghostbusters and 1989’s Ghostbusters II through the same points.

Lionsgate’s Nerve debuted in eighth place with an estimated $9.00 million. The digital-themed thriller aimed at teens starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco still did better than many analysts expected, as it was considered one of this summer’s more low-key releases. After being released last Wednesday to get a head start on the weekend, the film started with $3.21 million on Friday, actually increased by 4.6 percent on Saturday (a Saturday increase is a rarity) to $3.36 million, and declined 27.6 percent to $2.43 million on Sunday. This places its estimated opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.80 to 1, which is actually on the higher end of teen movies which often prove more front-loaded.

Disney’s Finding Dory eased 41.7 percent to $4.22 million and ninth place. With $469.01 million through seven weekends, it’s running an impressive 61.1 percent ahead of the inflation-adjusted gross of 2003’s Finding Nemo through the same point.

Rounding out the top 10, Warner Bros.’ The Legend of Tarzan plunged a sharp 63.4 percent to $2.40 million. It’s grossed $121.85 million through five weekends, running 14.7 percent behind the gross of 1999’s animated Tarzan through the same point, even without adjusting that version for ticket price inflation.

Elsewhere in the box office, the conservative documentary Hillary’s America from Quality Flix held on decently with an estimated $2.38 million, riding the wave of conservative worry after Clinton formally became the Democratic presidential nominee earlier this week. Woody Allen’s new release Cafe Society from Lionsgate made $2.25 million after expanding beyond limited release. And Captain Fantastic crossed the million-dollar weekend threshold for the first time with precisely $1.008 million.

The top 10 films this weekend made a cumulative estimated $172,345,000, which is 3.4 percent behind last weekend and 26.5 percent ahead of the same weekend last year, when Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation led.