Strong holds by Dawn of the Planet Of the Apes and some longer-running titles made this weekend look less terrible than it was.
OPENINGS: THE PURGE: ANARCHY (Universal) topped the newcomers with $28.4M, but that was 17% below the $34.1M opening weekend for last year’s Purge. While Purge 2 will turn a profit, it had higher production and marketing expenses this time around, which will cut heavily into the margin. The first Purge made more than 50% of its total US box office in its first 3 days, and with 2 new action movies opening next week (Hercules and Lucy), the same will likely happen this time. Anarchy also had a very limited overseas opening this weekend in 14 markets, earning $420K.
PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE (Disney) opened with $18M, which was similarly down 19% from the $22.3M start for last year’s Planes. However, like Planes, Fire & Rescue has very little family movie competition for the rest of the summer, and it may end up with the same 4x multiple, which in this case would give it $72M in the US. That wouldn’t be enough to make it profitable on production/marketing costs of $150-200M, so international (as well as merchandising) will be far more important (Planes made 59% of its worldwide revenue outside the US). The sequel is off to a modest start overseas with $9M in 24 territories.
SEX TAPE (Columbia/Sony) was a movie that audiences simply didn’t want to see, with a lousy $15M weekend–less than half of the $31.6M opening for Bad Teacher, which featured largely the same creative team. It’s rolling out slowly overseas, with $3M in 9 markets. Sex Tape is mostly valuable as another demonstration of how little “stars” mean at the contemporary box office, with its woeful ticket sales following not just Bad Teacher but the $24.8M opening for The Other Woman just a few months ago. Audiences don’t line up for a “Cameron Diaz movie,” they buy tickets for a movie they want to see that happens to star Cameron Diaz–when they find one.
HOLDOVERS: The strong word-of-mouth expected for DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (20th) kicked in on Saturday, and the movie held extremely well for a blockbuster, down 50% to $36M. It will top $200M in the US (unless Guardians of the Galaxy extinguishes it prematurely), and could get to the $220-230M level of X-Men: Days of Future Past and Maleficent. Overseas, Dawn spread into some of the World Cup territories now that the tournament is over, and earned $61M in 49 markets. It’s at $102M overseas with plenty of additional territories still to open, and aiming to outdo the $305M that Rise of the Planet of the Apes made 3 years ago.
Say what one will about Michael Bay and TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount), but they continue to be overseas phenomena. In the US, Age fell a very reasonable 39%, but it’s already at the tail end of its run with a $10M weekend, unlike to get higher than $250M, which will put it $100M below Transformers 3 (although still the summer’s #1 movie, pending the arrival of Guardians). But internationally, where it’s now expanding into World Cup territories, it had a huge $81M, for a current total of $659M–with some important markets like Japan still to open. The worldwide total is at $886M, and Age will not only go over $1B globally, but has a real chance of beating Transformers 3 and its $1.1B as the highest-grossing entry in the franchise.
TAMMY (Warners) held well, with a 39% drop to $7.6M, as it continues heading toward $85M. 22 JUMP STREET (Columbia/Sony) slipped just 28% to $4.7M in its 6th weekend for a $181M total, and it’s also at $88M overseas. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 (DreamWorks Animation/Disney) weathered the arrival of Planes 2 without much trouble, falling 37% to $3.8M. However, it’s only going to reach $170M in the US, $47M below the first Dragon, and the sequel is currently at $226M overseas after a $14M weekend, seemingly unlikely to match the $277M international total for the first movie. MALEFICENT (Disney) has been one of the summer’s steadiest hits, and it slipped a mere 21% to $3.3M in the US (total: $228.4M), and earned another $8M overseas (total: $469M).
BEGIN AGAIN (Weinstein) increased its theatre count by more than 30% but still fell 2% from last weekend to $2.8M. CHEF (Open Road), however, dropped just 10% in its 11th weekend. It’s now near $26M, and could get to $30M if it can hold onto its theatres.
LIMITED RELEASE: BOYHOOD (IFC) triumphed in its first expansion, widening to 33 theatres with a terrific $36K per-theatre average. The new openings were less impressive, as WISH I WAS HERE (Focus/Universal) had an OK $7300 average at 68, and although its $7200 average was similar, I ORIGINS (Fox Searchlight) was much weaker because it’s only at 4 NY/LA theatres.
About the Author
