Box office hits and misses: ‘Bourne’ brings back Matt Damon in a big way

The $60 million debut for Jason Bourne fell just behind the $69.2 million premiere of 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, and gives the fifth installment of the franchise a good starting point for a successful run. The positive score it received from general audiences over the weekend certainly doesn’t hurt its prospects either.

Falling to second place for the weekend was Star Trek Beyond, which took a big hit after last week’s debut and dropped almost 60 percent from week to week. However, both Star Trek and Jason Bourne received similarly positive CinemaScore appraisals (reviews based on audience polling after screenings), so all is not lost for the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and both films could have good runs in theaters despite a crowded summer calendar.

Two new releases cracked the top 10 for the weekend, with the raunchy comedy Bad Moms taking third place with a respectable $23.4 million and social-media thriller Nerve coming in eighth with $9 million.

Both movies came in slightly under expectations, but still got off to a good start given their relatively low production budgets. While Nerve faces competition from a summer filled with action films and thrillers, Bad Moms is envisioned as a sort of counter-programming alternative to Jason Bourne and this week’s Suicide Squad, so the timing appears to be good for that film in particular.

Speaking of Suicide Squad, the supervillain team-up movie is expected to have a huge opening weekend, with box-office pundits predicting a debut somewhere around $140 million. That would put it in the vicinity of Deadpool as far as opening weekends go, and around $20 million shy of where Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opened earlier this year.