DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (20th) had a good but not overwhelming Thursday night showing with $4.1M. That’s more than triple the $1.25M for 2011″s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but it’s far from the level for this summer’s tentpole blockbusters, which ranged from $8.1M for X-Men: Days of Future Past to $9.3M for Godzilla. (None of those movies started as late as the 10PM launch of Dawn, so they had the opportunity to sell more tickets, although Transformers: Age of Extinction began at 9PM and had a $8.75M Thursday.) It all suggests that while Dawn will beat Rise’s $54.8M opening weekend, it will meet expectations by coming in below the $90-100M blockbusters, probably in the $60-70M region. (Note: extremely early numbers at Deadline are reporting Friday results in line with $26-28M for the day. That could mean a $70M+ weekend, but the estimates are far too preliminary to make too much of them at this point.)
Dawn is the rare CG spectacle that might benefit from strong word of mouth, so its weekend and total multiple may be higher than the norm. Also, Dawn is poised to do much better than Rise‘s $305M overseas total.
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About the Author
Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."
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