America’s summer love for R-rated comedies and YA action-adventure sequels isn’t quite over yet. WE’RE THE MILLERS (Warners) got off to a creditable start with $6.8M on Wednesday (including $1.7M from Tuesday night screenings that began at 8PM). That’s not far off the pace of This Is The End, which had a $7.8M Wednesday start back in June, and took that to a $20.7M weekend and $33M in its first 5 days (with a current US total of $96.2M). Millers may be older-skewing, which could help it from being too front-loaded over the course of the weekend (although it’s not very good, which could counteract that). Still, for a movie claiming a $37M production budget–a number that gets closer to $150M with worldwide marketing–these aren’t bad numbers.
PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (20th) was at $5.5M on Wednesday (including $850K from 10PM Tuesday screenings), in the same range as the Wednesday starts for Turbo ($5.6M) and The Smurfs 2 ($5.2M). They had weekend/5 day totals of $21.3M/$31M and $17.5M/$27.1M. Percy Jackson, skewing a bit older than those, may not benefit as much from weekend matinees, and it will also have to face off with Disney’s Planes after Friday, so may only reach $25M by Sunday. The movie cost $90M to produce–meaning $200M+ with worldwide marketing–which probably makes it yet another summer action picture that will count on foreign overperformance to hit any profit. (The first in the series, Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, opened on a February Friday in 2010, and ran a $31.2M opening weekend into a $88.8M US total and $226.5M worldwide, figures that make the decision to produce a sequel in the first place somewhat questionable.)
| TITLE | THURSDAY NIGHT BOX OFFICE | WEEKEND BOX OFFICE | THURS AS % OF WEEKEND |
| IRON MAN 3 | 15.6M | 174.1M | 9% |
| THE GREAT GATSBY | 3.3M | 50.1M | 6.6% |
| STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS | 3.3M (Wed screenings pre-Thurs opening) |
70.2M | 4.7% |
| FAST & FURIOUS 6 | 6.5M | 97.4M | 6.7% |
| THE HANGOVER PART III | 3.1M | 41.7M | 7.4% |
| NOW YOU SEE ME | 1.5M | 29.4M | 5.1% |
| AFTER EARTH | 1M | 27.5M | 3.6% |
| THE PURGE | 3.4M | 34.1M | 10% |
| THE INTERNSHIP | 800K | 17.3M | 4.6% |
| THIS IS THE END | 2.2M (Tues screenings pre -Wed opening) |
20.7 | 10.6% |
| MAN OF STEEL | 12M (Wal-mart sponsored screenings) |
128.6M | 9.3% |
| WORLD WAR Z | 3.6M | 66.4M | 5.4% |
| MONSTERS UNIVERSITY | 2.6M | 82.4M | 3.2% |
| THE HEAT | 1M | 39.1M | 2.5% |
| WHITE HOUSE DOWN | 1.35M | 24.9M | 5.4% |
| DESPICABLE ME 2 | 4.7M (Tues screenings pre-Wed opening) |
83.5M | 5.6% |
| THE LONE RANGER | 2M (Tues screenings pre-Wed opening) | 29.2M | 6.8% |
| PACIFIC RIM | 3.6M | 37.3M | 9.7% |
| GROWN UPS 2 | 2.3M | 41.5M | 5.5% |
| THE CONJURING | 3.3M | 41.9M | 7.9% |
| R.I.P.D. | 773K | 12.7M | 6.1% |
| THE WOLVERINE | 4M | 53.1M | 7.5% |
| 2 GUNS | 1.2M | 27.1M | 4.4% |
| WE’RE THE MILLERS | 1.7M (Tues screenings pre-Wed opening) | ??? | ??? |
| PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS | 850K (Tues screenings pre-Wed opening) | ??? | ??? |
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