International Box Office Note: This is the last weekend before the World Cup begins diverting much of the planet’s attention (except, of course, in the US) away from movies for the next month. That’s expected to have a noticeable effect on the overseas box office.
OPENINGS: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (20th) confirmed all fears about the front-loaded young female audience, crashing by 52% on Saturday–one of the worst Day 2 results in history–and that pushed it to a $48.2M weekend. (And even that estimate assumes business will completely stabilize on Sunday, so it may be a tad too high.) Nevertheless, even a few days ago a $48M opening for the tiny-budgeted drama would have been considered huge, and Fault is a big win for 20th in every way. Fault is even showing some strength overseas, with $17.1M in only 17 territories this weekend. It seems to be headed for at least $100M in the US and $200M worldwide, a terrific result. If the studio could just figure out a way to do a sequel…
As expected, EDGE OF TOMORROW (Warners) was far more popular internationally than in the US–but not by nearly enough. Edge is claiming $29.1M at home (that estimate also assumes a strong Sunday, so it may come down tomorrow), and it had $82M overseas (a total of $111M with the scattered markets that opened last week). Crucially, that includes $25M in China, but while Warners and its mouthpieces are waving around comparisons to Tom Cruise’s off-season Oblivion, the important point is that Edge‘s debut is far smaller than the China opening weekends for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($46.5M), Pacific Rim ($45.3M), X-Men: Days of Future Past ($39.4M), or Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($38.8M). With its US failure, Edge needed to be equal to those blockbusters in China to have any hope of recouping its giant $325M+ investment (including worldwide marketing), and it wasn’t. Also working against Edge: Godzilla opens in China next weekend and will surely take over the #1 slot. Edge is in 63 markets already, representing most of the world–its remaining major territory is Japan–so at this point, the only relevant question is how deep the red ink will be. The good news for Cruise is that Mission Impossible 5 is on the way; the bad news is what he’s going to do after that.
HOLDOVERS: MALEFICENT (Disney), with no other family movies around, held fairly well with a 52% decline to $33.5M in the US. It also earned $59.7M in 52 foreign territories (its China opening is on June 20, and Japan is also still to come). It looks as though it could hit $600M worldwide (it has $335.5M so far), which would put it below Oz The Great and Powerful in the US, but considerably above it internationally. However, next week’s arrival of How To Train Your Dragon 2 could dent it.
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (20th) fell another 55% in the US to $14.7M and a $189.1M total, putting it on track for $220M here. Overseas, it added $42M for a $421M total. Worldwide, it has $610M, and should reach $720M, not the highest X-Men in the US (that’s still The Last Stand), but the most successful by far internationally. (And headed for the biggest worldwide result for any of this summer openings so far.)
GODZILLA (Warners) dropped 51% in the US to $6M, with a $185M total. It’ll only reach $200M if Warners pushes to keep it in theatres for the extra, dwindling few weeks it will take. Overseas it’s at a shockingly mediocre $208.7M after a $5.4M weekend, and even if it’s a blockbuster in China and Japan (as expected), it’s still only going to be around the same level as Pacific Rim internationally, much lower than hoped.
Only 1 of the 3 comedies in the market is thriving. NEIGHBORS (Universal) slipped just 36% in its 5th weekend to $5.2M and a $137.8M US total, plus $85.6M overseas, where it still has some major territories coming. It should hit $250M+ worldwide. A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST (Universal) dropped 57% to $7.2M and a $30.1M US total that won’t get higher than $45M. It also took in $10M in 21 markets overseas, for a $20M total so far. BLENDED (Warners) lost 50% to $4.1M in the US, a $36.5M total that also won’t climb past $45M. (It’s barely opened overseas.)
CHEF (Open Road) expanded to 1298 theatres for a $2.6M weekend, a merely OK $2K per theatre average.
LIMITED RELEASE: OBVIOUS CHILD (A24) found an early audience with a $27K average in 3 NY/LA theatres (helped by filmmaker Q&As). WORDS AND PICTURES (Roadside) expanded to 98 theatres with $3K average. THE GRAND SEDUCTION (EOne) also had a $3K average at 97 theatres. The subtitled IDA (Music Box) widened to 87 theatres with a $2600 average. NIGHT MOVES (Cinedigm) didn’t generate much enthusiasm with a move to 31 theatres and a $1600 average. The Mike Myers-directed documentary SUPERMENSCH (Weinstein) had a $6K average at 4.
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