Note: Because of the holiday weekend and consequent strong Sunday, weekend-to-weekend drops will look softer than usual.
OPENINGS: It was a weak battle of newcomers, with A WALK IN THE WOODS (Broad Green) ahead at $8.4M ($10.5M with Wed-Thurs earnings) vs. THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED (Europa/RED) at $7.1M. Walk compares well to the $8.5M opening for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (although that was at 25% fewer theatres), which reached $33.1M. Refueled is the lowest entry in the Transporter franchise (the original started with $9.1M in 2002, and the sequels were higher than that), but Refueled is more of an international play, and it’s stronger in the 27 markets where it’s opened to date with $10M.
HOLDOVERS: WAR ROOM (Affirm/TriStar/Sony) has held its lead over STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (Legendary/Universal) to take the 3-day weekend with $9.4M vs. $8.9M. The win is largely on the back of War Room‘s expected strength with post-church audiences on Sunday, although War Room had a narrow lead (less than $100K) on Friday and Saturday too. War Room, which declined 18% from last weekend, now looks like it could make its way to $50M, well above the $33.5M/34.5M for the Kendrick brothers’ previous Fireproof and Courageous, although below such religious titles as Heaven Is For Real ($91.4M) and God’s Not Dead ($60.8M). Compton, for its part, fell 33% and should end the weekend at just about $150M in the US. It also earned $7.9M in just 13 territories overseas, giving it $18.1M to date.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION (Skydance/China Film Channel/Alibaba/Paramount) is still holding well, down 12% from last weekend to $7.2M, and now at $180.4M in the US, with a chance to get to $200M. With its China opening to come on Tuesday, it’s also at $509.1M worldwide.
Last week’s opening NO ESCAPE (Bold/Weinstein) dropped 33% to $5.4M ($18.4M total to date), which made it a champion compared to the abysmal WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS (Alcon/Warners), off a 64% cliff to $640K ($3.2M total).
In one of the more extreme examples of how important foreign releases are to action spectacles, TERMINATOR: GENISYS (Skydance/Paramount) is now at $108M in China, which puts it at $346.3M overseas compared to just $89.6M in the US–a nearly 80/20 split (although perhaps still not enough to push the expensive movie into profit). JURASSIC WORLD (Legendary/Universal) hit an international milestone, becoming just the 4th movie in history to reach $1B outside the US (the others are Avatar, Titanic and Furious 7). Not only does that put Jurassic at $1.65B worldwide (#3 behind James Cameron’s pair), but it gives Universal a $6B worldwide total for 2015, the highest in history–and with 4 months still left on the calendar.
LIMITED RELEASE: The only notable opening in limited release was the animated import UN GALLO CON MUCHOS HUEVOS (Pantelion/Lionsgate), with a solid $3.4M at 395 theatres. MISTRESS AMERICA (Fox Searchlight) expanded badly to 512 theatres, tripling its count but only increasing its box office by 41% to $595K, a low $1200 per-theatre average. By comparison, Noah Baumbach’s previous While We’re Young had a $2K average at 713 theatres (and only got to $7.6M). GRANDMA (Sony Classics) widened more modestly and more successfully, with a $9400 average at 52. LEARNING TO DRIVE (Broad Green) is also succeeding at a mild level with a $5300 average at 70. PHOENIX (IFC) had a $1900 average at 185.
NEXT WEEKEND: The studios are still sluggish as the movie season enters fall, with arrivals of M. Night Shyamalan’s low budget THE VISIT (Universal), THE PERFECT MAN (Screen Gems/Sony) and another faith-related title, 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN (Goldwyn).
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