Each Thursday we look at what is going to be coming out in theaters this weekend, show you the trailers for the big releases, predict the box office winner and just generally give you enough of a carrot to pull you through the rest of the work week.  August 26th continues the doldrums of August.  If you need to catch up, The Walking Dead: Season Six came out on Blu Ray this week…..still want to hear about the movies, huh? Ok, your call.

There are four wide releases this week.  Two are getting extremely positive reviews, though have no appeal to me personally.  There’s the inevitable August/September horror film with Don’t Breathe, in which a group of idiot kids try to rob a blind man and it turns out he’s Stick from Daredevil (not really, though, I would go see that).  It’s not every President who gets his first date made into a movie (unless you consider Al Gore to have won the Presidency in 2000 and believe that Love Story is-in fact-about he and Tipper).  Bill Clinton got his shenanigans made into a movie in Primary Colors, George W. Bush got a semi-lampooning by Josh Brolin in W, but President Obama and the First Lady get an ode to their first date in Southside With You.  Both these films are currently over 85% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing.  I lose track of Jason Statham action films, as I have never intentionally viewed one (though he was a great baddie in FF7).  The Mechanic completely passed me by, and now he’s back with The Mechanic: Resurrection.  The film has not been screened for critics, so there’s that, on the other hand, Jessica Alba….  Hands of Stone is ANOTHER boxing movie, this one chronicling the career of Roberto Duran.  Of course, Robert DeNiro is in it, need you ask?  The film is currently hovering around the 50% mark.  You would think from the amount of boxing movies made that the sport was doing really well instead of become extinct on the level of horse racing.  This doesn’t stop Hollywood from making at least two boxing movies a year, while the sport that’s really replaced it, MMA, just has the fantastic Warrior to represent.

Don’t Breathe (Jane Levy, R, 1hr 28min)

Hands of Stone (Robert DeNiro, Edgar Ramirez, R, 1hr 45min)

Mechanic: Resurrection (Jason Statham, R, 1hr 50min)

Southside With You (Tika Sumpter, PG-13, 1hr 24m)

HOW DID WE DO LAST WEEK?
KT  picked Suicide Squad to hold off a group of contenders one final time, and the film did, earning $20.9 million.  The R-Rated animated feature Sausage Party continued to perform in second place with $15.5 million.  Ben-Hur opened in sixth place with a paltry $11.3 million (which gives it a million bucks for each Oscar the LAST Ben-Hur won).  Suicide Squad‘s win caps KT’s 25th “In Theaters This Week” column and, so far, we’re rocking an 88% rate in picking the weekend winners (Lifetime prediction record 22-3).

WHO WILL WIN THE WEEKEND?

If Suicide Squad had really been the home run DC was hoping it would be (not that it’s done poorly), I think it could’ve stayed on top until Tom Hanks’ Sully opens on September 9th.  As it is, it had three weeks on top, but it’s numbers are dropping to the point that I think this is the week that it gets passed by a new film.  With critical praise and a decent turnout from the horror crowd, Don’t Breathe should take the top spot in a lackluster week.