Box office: 'Don't Breathe' shocks with $26.1M in top spot

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The horror movie Don't Breathe has reason to let out a big sigh of relief. Studio estimates released Sunday show audiences turned out in droves for the late-summer thriller, which brought in $26.1 million.

That's more than double the early predictions for how the scary picture would perform and far beyond the less than $10 million production budget.

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Don't Breathe is about a group of Detroit teens who chose the wrong house to rob — that of a blind, vengeful veteran.

It's the latest horror success for Hollywood this summer, which has seen films like Lights Out, The Conjuring 2 and The Purge: Election Year thrive while their bigger budget, spectacle-driven counterparts flailed.

"As it turns out, horror is the least scary genre this summer, especially to the bean counters in Hollywood," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker comScore. "(They) can almost always be counted on to make money."

Horror films, Dergarabedian said, perform very well on home video, too.

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Don't Breathe unseated Suicide Squad from its three-week run atop the box office. Suicide Squad grossed $12.1 million, bringing its total to $282.9 million.

Family film Kubo and the Two Strings came in third with $7.9 million.

Raunchy animated comedy Sausage Party took fourth with $7.7 million. The poorly reviewed Jason Statham-led sequel Mechanic: Resurrection rounded out the top five in its first weekend with $7.5 million.

In the specialty box office, presidential love story Southside With You, about Barack and Michelle Obama's first date, earned about $3 million in 800 locations, according to comScore.com. Roberto Duran boxing drama Hands of Stone earned $1.7 million on about the same number of screens.

Final numbers are expected Monday.