Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #22 of 2014 looks like $159 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 16% above the norm for this weekend but -1% from last year.
Opening at 3,948 theaters, Maleficent from Disney grossed $24.2 million Friday and late Thursday, putting the film on track for a $71.0 million opening three-day weekend (well above our $62 million ShowbuzzDaily forecast). The film is pacing toward a three-day average of $17,900 per theater for the weekend (above the $5,333 opening weekend average for all wide-release films the last two years). Critical sentiment is mediocre (49% positive overall and a similar 50% positive with top critics). Maleficent is headed for $195 million total domestic.
Opening at 3,158 theaters, A Million Ways to Die in the West from Universal grossed $6.1 million Friday, putting the film on track for a $16.2 million opening weekend (below our $28 million forecast). The film is pacing toward a very mediocre three-day average of $5,100 per theater for the weekend. Critical sentiment is not supportive (34% positive overall and 39% positive with top critics). A Million Ways to Die in the West is headed for $56 million total domestic.
Expanding to 624 theaters, Chef from Open Road Films grossed $500,000 Friday and should hit $1.9 for the weekend (near our $2.0 million forecast). Through Sunday the film should total $6.8 million, headed for a $21 million domestic total.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is headed for $31.5 million in its second weekend (down 65% from last weekend and below our $38.5 million forecast). The total domestic outlook for X-Men: DFP has been adjusted down to $234 million. Godzilla continues to decline at a sharp rate (-63%) and is headed for a $11.3 million weekend, even lower than our $13.2 million forecast. Revised domestic total for Godzilla: $204 million.
| Weekend 22: May 30-June 1, 2014 | ($ millions) | |||||
| Pre-Wknd Showbuzz Forecast | Early Weekend Estimate | Actual Friday Gross | Showbuzz Domestic Final Proj. | |||
| Maleficent | Dis | [62.0] | 71.0 | 24.2 | 195 | |
| X-Men: Days of Future Past | Fox | [38.5] | 31.5 | 9.4 | 234 | |
| A Million Ways to Die in the West | Uni | [28.0] | 16.2 | 6.1 | 56 | |
| Godzilla | WB | [13.2] | 11.3 | 3.3 | 204 | |
| Blended | WB | [7.1] | 8.0 | 2.4 | 46 | |
| Neighbors | Uni | [7.2] | 7.5 | 2.4 | 153 | |
| Amazing Spider-Man 2 | Sony | [3.7] | 3.8 | 1.0 | 204 | |
| Million Dollar Arm | Dis | [4.1] | 3.8 | 1.0 | 41 | |
| Chef | Open | [2.0] | 1.9 | .50 | 21 | |
| The Other Woman | Fox | [2.1] | 1.4 | .44 | 87 | |
Note: The table above summarizes an early look at the weekend. The first column is a reminder of each film’s ShowBuzzDaily Forecast for the weekend (in brackets). The second column, on which the films are sorted, displays the new weekend projection for each film, based on the Friday numbers (the third column). The final column is a preliminary estimate of the ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Total number for the film’s total run in North America. A “++” indicates the Domestic number has been upgraded; a “–” indicates a downgrade.
Total Box Office Volume
The Top 12 Films this weekend are looking like $159 million total Friday-Sunday, up 16% from the four-year average for the comparable weekend but down 1% from the same weekend last year.
| WEEKEND 22 | ($ millions) | ||
| Weekend Volume: Top 12 Films | Top Movies Opening Each Weekend (Fri-Sun only) | ||
| 2014 | $159 | Maleficent $71.0, A Million Ways to Die in the West $16.2 | |
| 2013 | $161 | Now You See Me $29.3, After Earth $27.5 | |
| 2012 | $135 | Snow White and the Huntsman $56.2 | |
| 2011 | $154 | X-Men: First Class $55.1 | |
| 2010 | $122 | Get Him to the Greek $17.6, Killers $15.8, Marmaduke $11.6, Splice $7.4 | |
| Avg 2010-13 | $137 | ||
Check back tomorrow for more complete Weekend Studio Estimates based on Saturday’s actual box office, as well as the International Box Office report.
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