Top Domestic Grosser 2015 (U.S only)

⇒ $936,662,225

Top Global Grosser 2015

⇒ $2,068,223,624

 

Highest-grossing films of 2015

Rank	Title	Studio	Worldwide gross
1	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	Lucasfilm	$2,068,223,624
2	Jurassic World	Universal Pictures	$1,670,400,637
3	Furious 7		$1,516,045,911
4	Avengers: Age of Ultron	Marvel Studios	$1,405,413,868
5	Minions	Universal Pictures / Illumination Entertainment	$1,159,398,397
6	Spectre	MGM / Columbia	$880,674,609
7	Inside Out	Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar	$857,611,174
8	Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation	Paramount Pictures	$682,330,139
9	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2	Lionsgate Films	$653,428,261
10	The Martian	20th Century Fox	$630,161,890

via Wikipedia

 

 

 

‘Jurassic World’ is the 3rd Highest Grossing Film of All Time!!

Move aside superheroes.

“Jurassic World” has now surpassed “The Avengers” to become the third highest-grossing movie of all time. We first saw this on The Wrap. Since its release in June, Universal’s “Jurassic World,” has grossed an incredible $US1.52 billion worldwide. Over $US612 million of that has been stateside. 2012’s “The Avengers” grossed approximately $US1,519,557,910 at theaters. This year’s sequel, “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” has made $US1.39 million worldwide to date.

Here’s a look at the top five highest-grossing movies of all time, according to Box Office Mojo:

Movie	Release Date	Worldwide Box Office	Estimated Budget
1. “Avatar” (Fox)	12/18/2009	$US2.78 billion	n/a
2. “Titanic” (Paramount)	12/19/1997	$US2.18 billion	$US200 million
3. “Jurassic World” (Universal)	6/12/2015	$US1.52 billion	n/a
4. “The Avengers” (Disney)	5/4/2012	$US1.519 billion	$US220 million
5. “Furious 7” (Universal)	4/3/2015	$US1.511 billion	$US190 million

Take a close look at that list and you’ll see Universal is topping the list with another addition from this year — April’s runaway hit “Furious 7.” It actually could very well pass “Avengers” as well.

The studio recently crossed $US5 billion worldwide at the box office for the year.

That’s faster than any other studio has ever hit that mark.

While “Jurassic World” sits pretty in that top 3 spot for now, we’re sure the dinos won’t stay at third place for long.

Come December 18 when “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is released, we may have a new king of the box office, which could even topple director James Cameron’s reign at the top.

Early estimates from Citi and Morgan Stanley are tracking the film to make around $US2 billion — and we’re still MONTHS away.

One lesson’s clear from the performance of “Jurassic World”: Audiences certainly love nostalgia when it’s done right.

Via Business Insider Australia

Ant-Man opens slightly lower than expected while Trainwreck does well!!

Ant-Man opened to $58M at the domestic box office, slightly under its projected $60-$65M opening, becoming the 12th film in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe to open at #1. On 3,856 screens the film’s per screen take was $15,051.

It’s a good thing that the Paul Rudd superhero film has an “A” CinemaScore as that’s the lowest per-screen average of any of the 12 films. Coming in just slightly above Ant-Man is 2008’s The Incredible Hulk ($15,810 per) Thor ($16,618) and Captain America: The First Avenger ($17,512). Disney/Marvel‘s marketing team must be given some kudos though. Even given the strong Marvel brand, the challenges of marketing a character unknown to the public at large, whose power is getting really tiny and controlling ants, was obvious. They wryly dealt with it head-on in their first trailer, where Paul Rudd‘s character asks if “it’s too late to change the name,” a scene that, though this can sometimes happen from trailer to screen, ironically doesn’t appear in the finished film.

Universal’s Minions toppled 57% off of its colossal $115.7M weekend last week, for $50.2M, but secured the #2 spot. That’s a much steeper drop than Despicable Me, which dropped 41.8% in its second week and Despicable Me 2, which dropped 47.4%. It’s very reminiscent of another animated high-earner though as Shrek the Third, which still owns the biggest animated opening weekend of all time, with $121.6M, dropped 56.4% in its following weekend in May of 2007.

Trainwreck, also from Universal, did much better than anticipated, pulling in a strong $30.2M for third place, proving the ascendancy and draw of Amy Schumer. The R-rated comedy, which has an A- CinemaScore, made $9,575 per theater in 3,158 venues. 66% of the audience was female. It’s director Judd Apatow‘s second best opening weekend ever, coming in just slightly under Knocked Up, which made $30.9M on its opening weekend in 2007.

Positive reviews and Schumer‘s high profile (she’s even appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning”) made sure Trainwreck didn’t share the fate of Sex Tape, the R-rated comedy that flopped in this same frame last year with a lousy $14.6M opening.

The whole frame was up overall though with the top 12 earning $185.3M, a 37.4% increase over last year’s $134.9M when Dawn of the Planet of the Apes held #1 for a second weekend with $36.3M. July is up 28.8% over last year.

Well worth noting is the excellent results of Roadside Attractions‘ Mr. Holmes, which stars Ian McKellen. The film did a robust $2.49M for 10th place with a $6,857 per screen average on 363 screens. McKellen plays the aging, Baker Street sleuth who is battling senility all the while grappling with his last unsolved case. For director Bill Condon it has to be a relief as Holmes just made 76% in its opening weekend of what the helmer’s last film, The Fifth Estate, made in its entire run.

Via Box Office Mojo

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Ant-Man (2015)	$58.04M	$58.04M	1
	Minions (2015)	$50.20M	$216.69M	2
	Trainwreck (2015)	$30.20M	$30.20M	1
	Inside Out (2015)	$11.66M	$306.36M	5
	Jurassic World (2015)	$11.40M	$611.17M	6
	Terminator Genisys (2015)	$5.40M	$80.64M	3
	Magic Mike XXL (2015)	$4.50M	$58.64M	3
	The Gallows (2015)	$4.01M	$18.01M	2
	Ted 2 (2015)	$2.70M	$77.46M	4
	Mr. Holmes (2015)	$2.49M	$2.49M	1

Minions makes 2nd biggest animated debut ever!! Indian film ‘Baahubali’ cracks into the U.S Top 10!!

For the second frame in a row, an animated title is number one at the box office. But unlike last weekend, when Monday actuals put Inside Out on top in place of Jurassic World, everyone saw today’s win for Minions coming. Since the little, yellow beings first appeared in 2010’s Despicable Me, their commercial appeal has been hard to deny. Now, as expected, the first film to put the creatures front and center has easily secured the highest opening among the three Despicable Me releases.

Minions brought in an estimated $115.2 million from 4,301 locations, including $6.2 million from Thursday pm previews. That more than doubles the $56.4 million debut of Despicable Me and stands 38% ahead of 2013’s Despicable Me 2. But as we told you yesterday, DM2 opened on the Wednesday before Independence Day. Those two extra days in theaters make it difficult to draw direct comparisons to Minions, but hey! Since when has the box office been interested in subtlety? In its initial Friday – Sunday run, Despicable Me 2 earned $83.5 million. And there’s no doubt that Minions beats that easily.

In fact, the film’s current estimate beats every animated release in box office history, save one. In 2007 Shrek the Third opened with $121.6 million, which still stands as the best animated debut of all time. In reaching second place, Minions stepped over both Toy Story 3 ($110.3 million) and Shrek 2 ($108 million). Universal even seemed confident yesterday that Minions could break the all-time record. In the end, that proved unrealistic – though you can’t really fault them for their optimism. Considering the incredible run they’ve had with Jurassic World, it’s easy to see why Universal felt another record was within their grasp. And as a consolation prize, the $46.2 million Minions claimed on Friday secures the title for the biggest single-day animated debut in history.

For the third weekend in a row the estimates for Inside Out and Jurassic World are extremely close. Jurassic World has the edge in second place: taking in an estimated $18.1 million to Inside Out’s $17.1 million. With Minions siphoning off most of the family demographic this weekend, it seems unlikely that Inside Out will pull off another surprise when Monday’s actual earnings are released, but who knows? For now we’ll assume that the chart positions below will stay the same and that Universal will remain in control of both first and second place.

After opening at number four on Friday, The Gallows fell to fifth place on the weekend chart. The R-rated horror pic from prolific producer Jason Blum earned an estimated $10 million from 2,720 locations. That’s on the lower end of projections for the film – and lower than the $15.8 million that Blum’s Unfriended opened to back in April. Then again, considering The Gallows reportedly cost less than $1 million to make, no one involved is asking where it all went wrong this weekend.

That’s probably not the case with Focus Features’ new release Self/Less. The sci-fi thriller, directed by Tarsem Singh (The Fall, Immortals), was not expensive by summer box office standards ($26 million) but still managed to look like a costly flop on its first weekend. From 2,353 locations, Self/Less earned an estimated $5.3 million in eighth place. Just one notch down we find the South Indian epic Baahubali: The Beginning, which had one tenth the theater count (236) of Self/Less and still managed to make it into the top ten with $3.5 million.

Overall box office earnings this weekend ran an impressive 41% ahead of the same frame in 2014, when Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was on top. Next weekend, we welcome Marvel back to the box office with the long-awaited release of Ant-Man. Current projections for title are in the $65 million range. Coincidentally, that’s right where both Thor and Captain America wound up in their initial screen outings. Also new next weekend is director Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, starring Amy Schumer. The R-rated comedy should claim close to $30 million.

Via The Collider

Here’s this weekend’s top ten chart:

	Title	Weekend	Total
1.	Minions	$115,200,000	$115.2
2.	Jurassic World	$18,100,000	$590.6
3.	Inside Out	$17,108,000	$283.6
4.	Terminator: Genisys	$13,700,000	$68.7
5.	The Gallows	$10,015,000	$10
6.	Magic Mike XXL	$9,640,000	$48.3
7.	Ted 2	$5,600,000	$71.6
8.	Self/Less	$5,379,000	$5.3
9.	Baahubali: The Beginning	$3,575,000	$3.5
10.	Max	$3,420,000	$33.7

Dinos & Emotions Terminate Time Travelling Machines at the BO!!

Jurassic World and Inside Out are still grappling for 1st place over the three-day Fourth of July frame, with World just slightly ahead, estimating $30.9M to Inside’s $30.1M.

If World prevails it will be the dino-flick’s fourth three-day weekend at #1.

What Universal does appear to be conceding, however, with a “you can have it” air, is that the Disney/Pixar film is likely the winner of the five-day Fourth of July frame. Though it’s still a tight race Disney is claiming victory for the full holiday domestic frame with Inside Out making $45.3M (4,158 venues) to Jurassic World‘s $43.8M (3,737 venues).

Universal is also reporting that Jurassic World will pass $550M in domestic grosses this weekend. Adding another milestone to its marble bag of records that’s the fastest—in 24 days—any film has reached the $550M mark. World added $42M in overseas coin, raising its international total to $826.9M. Combined with domestic that total makes Jurassic World the fifth highest grossing film worldwide of all time with $1.385B in global grosses, just passing Avengers: Age of Ultron at $1.37B. Ultron opened in its last market this weekend, making $6.5M in Japan.

The lackluster home field reception for Paramount‘s Terminator Genisys, which has a three-day estimate of $28.7M and a five-day estimate of $44.1M, calls into question the domestic box-office draw of Arnold Swarzenegger and the overall viability of the once-redoubtable Terminator franchise itself.

After all 2009’s Terminator Salvation opened in 3,530 venues with a three-day estimate of $42.6M, a $12,056 per screen average. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, made $44M in 3,504 theaters, a $12,568 average on its three-day July 4th weekend in 2003. Terminator Genisys was in 3,758 theaters yet only made a $7,637 average.

Overseas coin, however, the likely reason that anyone revisted making another Terminator in the first place, looks like it might save the day. Grosses came in at $74M from 44 markets over the weekend and an $85M international cume.

Terminator Genisys opened at #1 in Russia ($12.5M at 1,150 locations), Korea ($11.1M from 1,275 venues), Mexico ($6.2M from 670 locations), India ($2.8M from 600 venues), Malaysia ($2.3M at 131 sites), Taiwan ($2.1M at 80 locations), Hong Kong ($1.9M from 44 venues), and Ukraine ($666K from 235 locations). Though not landing at the #1 spot it has also opened in the UK ($5.6M from 536 sites), France ($3.8M at 680 locations), Brazil ($4M from 549 cinemas), Australia ($4.7M at 258 cinemas), the Philippines ($1.4M at 149 sites), and Venezuela ($2.4M at 75 venues).

It has yet to open in Germany and Italy, which it does on July 9th and the next day in Spain and Japan. A release date has yet to be chosen for China.

At Genisys‘s reported pre-advertising cost of $155M it will be the international markets that dictate whether we will be hearing of Skynet and Judgment Day in the near future. Given that Paramount has two more Terminator films slated to go, in 2016 and 2017, all eyes will be on those rollouts.

With an astounding 96% female audience Magic Mike XXL left the three-day weekend with $12.04M dollars tucked into its waistband. For the five-day frame the film made $27.07M. Overseas had a limited launch with $6.2M at 2,572 screens in 15 markets, led by the U.K. with $2.5M. Mike has an A- from CinemaScore and a reported budget of $14.8M meaning not only was its clientele happy with it so was Warner Bros.

Ted 2 had a -67% drop off from last week, making $11M for the three day and $ 17.3M for the five day holiday. Its domestic cume stands at $58.3M. Internationally Ted has marked about 50% of the available territories adding $8.8M to its international total of $36M for a worldwide cume of $94.3M. It will open in the U.K. and Ireland, Poland, Turkey and Peru next weekend.

If things don’t turn around, which seems unlikely, we’re more likely to see more Terminators than we are more teddy bears.

Max made $6.6M, just ahead of Spy with $5.9M.

Via Box office Mojo

Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Jurassic World (2015)	$30.90M	$558.14M	4
	Inside Out (2015)	$30.11M	$246.16M	3
	Terminator Genisys (2015)	$28.70M	$44.16M	1
	Magic Mike XXL (2015)	$11.60M	$26.66M	1
	Ted 2 (2015)	$11.00M	$58.33M	2
	Max (2015)	$6.61M	$25.35M	2
	Spy (2015)	$5.50M	$97.90M	5
	San Andreas (2015)	$3.03M	$147.37M	6
	Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)	$1.32M	$4.00M	4
	Dope (2015)	$1.10M	$14.10M	3

‘Jurassic World’ is still BO King!! While ‘Ted 2’ underperforms!!

Jurassic World took the #1 weekend box-office spot for the third week in a row with $54.2M off of a -49% week-over-week drop, just allowing it to fend off Disney‘s Inside Out, which made $52.1M on a -42.4% decline.

With $32.9M in 3,442 theaters Ted 2, however, didn’t really make a run at the spot, making less than even the most pessimistic pundits had placed it. Universal’s own estimates had the film at $45M – $50M making Ted 2 the second Seth MacFarlane film to under-perform for them. A Million Ways to Die in the West opened in 3,158 venues on May 30 of last year to a still-surprisingly low $16.8M weekend. Ted 2 has a B+ CinemaScore.

Included in the Universal report is another Jurassic World record. The film also crossed the $500M mark domestically, the fastest any film has done that, crossing the milestone in 17 days (6/12/2015 – 6/28/2015). The previous record holder, Marvel‘s The Avengers, pulled it off in 23 days (5/4/2012 – 5/26/2012).

Max, the PTSD dog movie, slacked its pace a little off of its hearty $4.3M on Friday. Warner Bros is reporting that it took in $12.2M (was estimated at $13M) for the weekend in 2,855 venues for a $4,277 per theater take. The film as an “A” CinemaScore so it may look to have legs.

In holdover news Spy continues to prove that it has just that, taking another easy -25% decline, making $7.8M (last weekend $10.4M). The film’s domestic gross is $88.3M

San Andreas, on the other hand, dropped -59% from last week, making $3.4M in 2,032 venues (last week – $8.2M) with $141.9M in domestic gross.

Dope took a -52.3% decline off last week’s $6M, adding $2.86M to Open Road‘s coffers in 1,851 locations, a $1,545 per-theater take.

Internationally, Jurassic World took in $737.5M this weekend in 66 territories. Its top grossing markets are China ($202M), the U.K. and Ireland ($76.1M), Mexico ($36.9M), Korea ($35.3M), Germany ($35.3M), Australia ($29.4M), France ($29M), and Russia ($21.9M).

Combined with the +500M+ domestic take the film’s worldwide total is $1.24B.

Inside Out continued its measured international release pattern, opening in Belgium, Hungary, India, New Zealand, and Trinidad. It has not yet opened in such major markets as Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Korea and Japan. In those international markets where it has been released (44% of the overseas markets) it has made $26.4M for an international cume of $78.5M. Combining the domestic gross of $184.9M with the overseas, which Disney is reporting at $81.5M (adding in advance receipts), Inside Out‘s worldwide cume is $266.4M.

Via Box Office Mojo

Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Jurassic World (2015)	$54.20M	$500.10M	3
	Inside Out (2015)	$52.13M	$184.95M	2
	Ted 2 (2015)	$33.00M	$33.00M	1
	Max (2015)	$12.21M	$12.21M	1
	Spy (2015)	$7.80M	$88.35M	4
	San Andreas (2015)	$5.28M	$141.87M	5
	Dope (2015)	$2.86M	$11.78M	2
	Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)	$2.03M	$49.82M	4
	Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)	$1.74M	$147.08M	7
	Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)	$1.64M	$452.43M	9

Jurassic World is still at no 1 yet Pixar’s Inside Out opens BIG at the BO!!

Jurassic World retained its #1 position at the weekend box office with a less-than-expected -51% decline for a $102M take. Inside Out outperformed even the most optimistic of estimates and banked $91M, making it Pixar’s 2nd largest opening weekend, behind Toy Story 3, which made $110.3M in 2010.

What is startling about Inside Out‘s weekend is that it is the highest opening weekend ever for an original property (that is to say one that is not a sequel or a non-sourced work), passing Avatar, which made $77M on its December 18-20, 2009 bow. To be fair, however, James Cameron’s sci-fi adventure, took in a higher per-screen average, $23,313 in 3,452 screens, on almost 500 fewer screens (Inside Out‘s PSA was $23,061 per, in 3,946 venues).

Internationally Inside Out made $41M (for a $132M worlwide cume) though it has a staggered overseas rollout, now showing in Australia, Brazil, France, Mexico, and Russia (among 24 other markets), representing just 42% of the global footprint.

And that globe continues to be dominated by Jurassic World. Add its overseas take of $583.1M to its estimated domestic take of $398.2M and the film sits with an estimated worldwide cume of $981.3M in worldwide grosses. Given that pace World will likely handily beat the record for fewest days to $1B worldwide, on its 11th or 12th, whereas the previous record holder, Universal’s Furious 7, did so in 17 days in April. World has opened in all territories save Japan where Universal says it’s now opening August 5th.

You also can’t dismiss that domestic take either. World‘s $102M, off that -51% decline, is the second best second week in history, only behind Marvel’s The Avengers which made $103.1M in its second week off of a -50.3% WOW decline. Avengers: Age of Ultron, in comparison, dropped -59.4% in its second week ($191.3M to $77.7M). Furious 7 dropped -59.5% (from $147.2M to $59.6M)

Spy added 383 screens and only declined -32.8% for third place and a $10.4M take.

San Andreas dropped -358 screens and ended up in fourth with $8.2M.

The #5 spot on the chart finds Dope, the well-reviewed Sundance hit that Open Road Films acquired for $7M. It opened with $6M in 2,002 venues. That $3K PSA might be slightly under what Open Road hoped for but the film is likely to have legs on reported strong word-of-mouth.

Meanwhile the film that took both the Grand Jury and the Audience prize at Sundance, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, continues to struggle. In its second week the Fox Searchlight film made $352K in 68 theaters (it added 53 this week) for a reasonably healthy $5,172K PSA. That’s the third best in the top 20, after Inside Out and World, so it’s clearly doing something right. Its cume though, $645K, seems to indicate it’s not getting embraced in the way that this film will need to to break out of the indie pack.

The Overnight, also out of Sundance, earned $61.5K on 3 screens in NY and L.A. for a $20.5K per screen average, the best of any indie film in the market. That market is strewn with other titles (Manglehorn, Eden, Infinitely Polar Bear) that had similarly small releases that didn’t perform nearly as well so it is worth noting.

via Box Office Mojo

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Jurassic World (2015)	$102.02M	$398.23M	2
	Inside Out (2015)	$91.06M	$91.06M	1
	Spy (2015)	$10.50M	$74.37M	3
	San Andreas (2015)	$8.24M	$132.23M	4
	Dope (2015)	$6.02M	$6.02M	1
	Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)	$4.11M	$45.37M	3
	Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)	$3.30M	$177.50M	6
	Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)	$2.82M	$143.60M	6
	Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)	$2.72M	$451.04M	8
	Tomorrowland (2015)	$2.01M	$87.70M	5

 

‘Jurassic World’ stomps domestic & worldwide records!!

Universal is reporting that Jurassic World now holds the title of biggest domestic opening weekend of all time, grossing $208.8M at the box office, surpassing 2012’s Marvel’s The Avengers at $207.4M.

Not content with North American triumphs World also now holds the title for the #1 international opening weekend in history as well, with an estimated $315.6M, besting Warner Bros. 2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 at $314M. World was #1 in 66 territories and represented 70% of the total weekend box office around the globe. The film also laid claim to the title of Universal’s highest-grossing international weekend, beating the previous record holder Furious 7 with $250.4M

This all led to other firsts: Universal crossed the $1B mark at the domestic box office faster than any studio to date, beating the previous record achieved on June 22, 2008 by Paramount. Worldwide Universal smashed the record for reaching $3B worldwide, previously held by 20th Century Fox, on June 30, 2010.

With those domestic and overseas numbers being adjusted upward (which is seemingly happening on the hour), the cumulative worldwide number went to $524.4M (was put at $511.8M on Sunday), making the film the highest global bow in history, and not by some slim margin. It is the first time a film has ever grossed more than $500 million in one weekend.

Not only is Jurassic World the biggest opening domestic weekend that Universal has ever had (the next closest film is Furious 7 with $147.2M) it’s the biggest that co-financier Legendary has ever had, which includes the Dark Knight films.

3D also played a major role, according to RealD, who reported that 65% of all international sales were for 3D showings, equaling $205M of the $315.3 (Real D reports this number as $315.7). Universal states that 3D grosses were more like 50%. Included in the Real D report is the astonishing assertion that 95% of moviegoers in China saw Jurassic World in 3D, with the next top performing markets listed as Germany (89%), Brazil (78%) and Russia (74%)

Universal reports that “IMAX scored a record-breaking international weekend of $23.5M, or $53k per screen on 443 IMAX screens, which beats the previous best international opening weekend” held by Transformers: Age of Extinction with $16.7M

Things look rosy for the film in the future as well with an “A” Cinema Score, with audience attendance splitting up 52% Male and 48% female. 39% were under age 25 and 61% age 25 and over.

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Jurassic World (2015)	$208.81M	$208.81M	1
	Spy (2015)	$15.61M	$56.55M	2
	San Andreas (2015)	$10.81M	$119.12M	3
	Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)	$7.31M	$37.38M	2
	Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)	$6.40M	$171.11M	5
	Entourage (2015)	$4.19M	$25.72M	2
	Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)	$4.07M	$138.54M	5
	Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)	$3.68M	$444.78M	7
	Tomorrowland (2015)	$3.49M	$83.68M	4
	Love & Mercy (2014)	$1.67M	$4.68M	2

Melissa McCarthy comedy ‘Spy’ scares past ‘Insidious’ threequel & fan boys ‘Entourage’ at the BO!!

Writer/director Paul Feig, Melissa McCarthy, and a cache of great, supporting actors helped pull the extremely funny and well-reviewed Spy ahead of its early challenger, Insidious 3, for a $30M win. That wasn’t a sure thing as the third installment in the Insidious series, which ended up with $23M for the weekend, in 3,002 venues, took an early, if slight, Friday lead over Spy. That’s not unusual as horror fans tend to show up early to support their films, so on Saturday, Insidious 3 was a nose ahead with $10.4M versus $10.3M for the secret agent spoof. But, coming around the Saturday bend, Spy surged ahead for a dominant, American Pharoah-like finish.

Coming in 2nd place was Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and San Andreas with $26.4M and a not-unreasonable -52% drop from its hefty $54.5M last weekend. Its domestic cume is perched to break $100M sometime today.

Entourage, which was so buried under negative reviews labeling the film “misogynist” you had to wonder if critics had *seen* the original HBO show, sputtered to a weak $10.5M on 3,100 screens and a disappointing fourth place. Added to its Wednesday and Thursday cash the film has grossed $17.8M domestically for the 5-day period. Perhaps word-of-mouth—it has an A- on CinemaScore—will keep it afloat over the week.

Insidious 3 will likely have another in its series as the film opened well internationally. It made $14.3M in 42 territories including Russia, Malaysia and the Phillipines. It has yet to open in large territories such as Mexico (6/19), Germany (7/2), France (7/8), and South Korea (7/9).

Poor Aloha took it on the chin again, dropping -65% for a $3.3M weekend and 9th place.

Love and Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic, did well on 483 screens, earning an estimated $2.2M, for a respectable per screen average of $4.6K (much better than Entourage‘s $3.3K per screen).

Avengers: Age of Ultron with $1.348B passed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 to become the 5th highest grossing film of all-time, globally. Next up is Furious 7 and its $1.51B worldwide gross. Ultron has yet to open in Japan, which it does on July 4. So far Ultron top territories have been China ($233.6M), Korea ($82.2M), the UK ($72.8M) and Mexico ($50.4M).

That might help Disney feel a little better about the lackluster performance of Tomorrowland which took another -50% drop for a $7.022M weekend and 7th place. That puts the Brad Bird film at $76.2M domestically, with a worldwide cume of $169.7M.

Internationally, the aca-pocalypse battle continued as Mad Max: Fury Road crossed $300M in worldwide box office on Saturday while Pitch Perfect 2 crossed $250M today.

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Spy (2015)	$30.00M	$30.00M	1
	San Andreas (2015)	$26.44M	$92.16M	2
	Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)	$23.00M	$23.00M	1
	Entourage (2015)	$10.42M	$17.81M	1
	Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)	$7.97M	$130.80M	4
	Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)	$7.70M	$160.98M	4
	Tomorrowland (2015)	$7.02M	$76.24M	3
	Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)	$6.20M	$438.02M	6
	Aloha (2015)	$3.30M	$16.34M	2
	Poltergeist (2015)	$2.85M	$44.45M	3

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‘San Andreas’ stomps ‘Aloha’ at the BO with $53M domestic take!!

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson proved he can open a tent pole film all by his not-so-little lonesome with San Andreas‘s estimated, beefy $53M domestic take. That $14K per theater average, in 3,777 venues, was much better than the predicted $40M for the Warner Bros. disaster flick. 44% of that was attributed to 3D and, with an A- CinemaScore, it looks like the film will have domestic box-office aftershocks for some weeks to come. But the U.S wasn’t the only place that the tremors were felt. Overseas, in 60 markets, San Andreas ranked #1 in 55 of those markets, opening with an international cum of $60M (on 14.5k screens) resulting in a worldwide cum of $113.2M.

The real winner in this story, however, is Johnson. San Andreas is the best opening for him where he was not part of an ensemble, such as the Fast and Furious or the G.I. Joe flicks. Last year’s underwhelming performance of Bret Ratner‘s Hercules cast some doubt whether Johnson really could act as the main attraction. But Warner made him the focus of the marketing campaign and Johnson did his usual above-average participation to promote the film. This paid off, not only for him, but also for his director, Brad Peyton. Their last collaboration was Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which opened surprising well in February of 2012, to the tune of $27M, finally ending up at $103.8M domestic and $335.2M worldwide, setting the stage for this triumph.

On the sad part of the box-office spectrum, the other major wide release, the D.O.A. Cameron Crowe movie, Aloha, sputtered to an estimated $10M in 2,815 theaters. Interestingly, if that $10M holds, which is not assured, Aloha will actually open better than Crowe‘s last film, 2011’s We Bought a Zoo ($9.3M in 3,011 theaters). But that has to be cold comfort for Crowe and crew who wound up at 6th place in the top 10.

That left a lot of room for the holdovers.

Pitch Perfect 2 was in second place, actually adding 100 theaters and ending up with $14.3M and a domestic cum of $147.5M. Internationally the film seems to be following in the footsteps of the original film, that is, lagging behind domestic. The sequel’s international weekend estimate is $10.4M in 46 territories for a total of $80.7M. Combined with the U.S. estimate of $147.5M, the worldwide total is $228.2M.

Tomorrowland took a nasty 58.2% drop off of last week for $13.8M over the three days and 3rd place. It’s domestic cum is $63.1M. Overseas the film has opened in 88% of the available territories with just Brazil and Japan left and has $70M to show for it. That places Tomorrowland‘s worldwide cum at $133.2M, which is kind of a depressing turn of events for a film with such a hopeful message.

Mad Max: Fury Road landed in the 4th position with $13.6M, just behind Tomorrowland. That’s 44.7% off of last week in 3,255 venues for a $115M domestic cum. Internationally the film made $21.6M on approximately 9,742 screens in 70 release markets. The international cum is now $165M with the worldwide cum standing at $280M (Take that, Pitches!).

In 5th place for the week the still-impressive Avengers: Age of Ultron made $10.9M domestically, which it tossed onto its new domestic take of $427M. Internationally the film added $17.6M to its fearsome $894.2M in 91 territories. That’s a worldwide sum of $1.32B.

Like Tomorrowland, the film it opened with, Fox‘s Poltergeist also took a second week nosedive dropping a whopping 65% from last week with a $7.8M weekend cum and finding itself in 7th place, below Aloha. Poltergeist‘s total domestic cum sits at $38.2M

Via Box Office Mojo

Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	San Andreas (2015)	$53.22M	$53.22M	1
	Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)	$14.38M	$147.54M	3
	Tomorrowland (2015)	$13.80M	$63.19M	2
	Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)	$13.63M	$115.92M	3
	Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)	$10.92M	$427.07M	5
	Aloha (2015)	$10.00M	$10.00M	1
	Poltergeist (2015)	$7.80M	$38.27M	2
	Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)	$1.42M	$8.36M	5
	Hot Pursuit (2015)	$1.37M	$32.35M	4
	Home (2015)	$1.15M	$170.41M	10

‘Tomorrowland’ takes an average opening at the Memorial weekend!!

Opening in 3,972 locations Tomorrowland took in a lower than expected $40.7M just beating out Pitch Perfect 2 and its projected $37.9M in what proved to be a drowsy four-day Memorial weekend frame.

The Brad Bird/George Clooney collaboration ended up the 22nd biggest Memorial opener of all time, sitting somewhat ignominiously behind 2013’s Epic ($42.8M) and ahead of 2010’s Prince of Persia: Sands of Time ($37.8M). Without a strong tentpole to anchor it the holiday frame looks to be down 19% YOY.

Internationally Tomorrowland opened in 65 territories (56% of the total available) and made $26.7M for a $58.8M worldwide cume. It opened at the #1 spot in Russia and Mexico, and has yet to open in major markets such as Spain, Australia, China, Japan, Korea and Brazil.

Still, it’s not the greeting that Disney received for its other attraction-based film, Pirates of the Caribbean, whose third film in the series, At World’s End, remains the Memorial Day champion with $139M domestically in 2007.

The only other major new competition, Fox’s Poltergeist reboot, did about as expected with $27.7M for the four-day frame ($23 for the three-day) in 3,240 theaters and an $8.3K per theater take. Guesstimates were on the lower end of the 20s for the Sam Rockwell starrer.

In other holdover news Mad Max: Fury Road proved it may have the stamina it needs to be considered a success. With an impressive second week drop of only -47%, the film took in $38.2m domestically. Internationally it zoomed past the $100M mark with $124.3M, bringing the worldwide gross to $212M.

Meanwhile, Pitch Perfect 2 may have held the 2nd berth but its domestic take dropped 56% WOW. The musical/comedy might be keeping just ahead of Max in the States but its international cume is lagging at $187.1M. Then again, it didn’t cost over $150M either.

We also can’t forget Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Marvel/Disney film crossed $200M in China. It’s also expected to cross the $400M mark here domestically and is the only film to do that so far this year. Internationally the film will cross the $800M threshhold for a $1.2B worldwide take. It still has to keep going to eclipse Furious 7‘s $1.5B worldwide gross, which is seems likely to do.

Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Tomorrowland (2015)	$32.97M	$32.97M	1
	Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)	$30.83M	$109.60M	2
	Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)Poltergeist (2015)	$24.82M$27.7M	$88.26M$27.7M	21
	Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)	$21.69M	$404.86M	4
	The Age of Adaline (2015)	$15.00M	$39.90M	5
	Hot Pursuit (2015)	$3.61M	$29.06M	3
	Furious Seven (2015)	$2.23M	$347.13M	8
	Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)	$2.20M	$5.45M	4
	Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015)	$1.88M	$65.70M	6
	Home (2015)	$1.75M	$168.07M	9

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Via Box Office Mojo

‘Pitch Perfect’ sequel races way ahead of Mad Max: Fury Road!!

Tom Hardy, George Miller, and Mad Max: Fury Road were run over by Anna Kendrick, Elizabeth Banks and the young harmonizers of Pitch Perfect 2 in a game of chicken between two sequels with equally passionate fan-bases.

In the end though it was Pitch Perfect 2 that won out taking in a robust $70.3M in 3,473 theaters for a healthy per-theater average of $20.2K. Meanwhile Mad Max: Fury Road took in $44M in 3,702 theaters for a respectable $11.9 take per theater.

Pitch Perfect 2 arrived with an unusually high quotient of goodwill, owing to the popularity of the original Pitch Perfect, an ebullient musical/comedy made rarely these days. The original film, directed by Jason Moore, made $14.8M in its opening weekend late in September of 2012, going on to earn $65M domestically, a number its sequel surpassed in the last three days alone. Internationally Pitch Perfect did $48M, for a $113M worldwide cume.

Over at Warner Bros. they must be heaving a sigh of relief with the same breath they’re using to congratulate themselves. Sure they have to settle for 2nd place but they have to be proud that they’re spending their weekend defending Fury Road‘s $44M take and not what could have been a $100M write-off. Rumors abounded that the shoot was troubled (Tom Hardy apologized to director George Miller in Cannes for his behavior on-set) and early test screenings reportedly went poorly. Reshoots were necessitated yet still the studio didn’t know what to do with the nearly dialogue-free film. That they ended up with what is being hailed in many circles, from Connecticut to the Cannes Croisette as a classic, one that could propel the franchise down the line, is a testament to testing.

Avengers: Age of Ultron took its natural 3rd week 50% slide with $38.8M in estimated receipts and a worldwide cume that blew past $1 billion worldwide on Friday and now sits at $1.14B. The new domestic take, now at $372M, makes it the #1 film of 2015 (for now) as it passed Furious 7‘s $343M domestic cume. It also makes the Marvel film the 8th biggest grossing film of all-time. Ultron also opened up in China on Tuesday, grossing an estimated $156.3M in the six days since its release. The film opens in Japan on July 4.

Via Box Office Mojo

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)	$70.30M	$70.30M	1
	Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)	$44.44M	$44.44M	1
	Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)	$38.84M	$372.01M	3
	Hot Pursuit (2015)	$5.78M	$23.50M	2
	Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015)	$3.60M	$62.93M	5
	Furious Seven (2015)	$3.60M	$343.80M	7
	The Age of Adaline (2015)	$3.20M	$37.07M	4
	Home (2015)	$2.70M	$165.65M	8
	Ex Machina (2015)	$2.10M	$19.57M	6
	Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)	$1.30M	$2.63M	3

Top 10 Films in U.A.E (APR 30, 2015 – MAY 06, 2015)!!

THIS	LAST	FILM	EXHIB.	WEEK	NO	3 DAYS WEEKEND	WK	CUM
WK	WK			NO.	SCRNS.	(THU-SAT) B.O.	B.O	B.O.
1		AVENGERS	VC/NC/RC/CR/CC/AM	1	142	10,557,266	14,218,933	14,218,933
2	1	FURIOUS 7	VC/NC/RC/CR/CC/AM	5	30	485,743	721,695	38,684,000
3		SHE’S FUNNY THAT WAY	VC/NC/RC/CR/CC/AM	1	28	348,476	582,291	582,291
4	3	MALL COP 2	VC/NC/RC/CR/CC	3	16	311,536	419,274	3,833,541
5	2	TRACERS	VC/NC/RC/CR/CC/AM	2	17	190,925	274,050	1,778,562
6	6	AGE OF ADELINE	VC/NC/RC	2	8	137,813	240,538	879,594
7		LEMON TREE PASSAGE	VC/NC/RC/CR/AM	1	16	111,707	178,368	178,368
8	7	HOME	VC/NC/RC/CC	6	15	138,112	181,672	7,815,885
9	5	BIG GAME	NC/RC	3	6	45,731	83,996	2,517,134
10		OTT WE FAR (ARABIC)	VC/NC/RC/CR/AM	1	15	48,485	72,693	72,693
11	4	BARELY LETHAL	VC/NC/RC	2	7	35,610	64,712	854,359
12	12	CINDERELLA	VC/RC	8	5	33,400	59,727	11,130,575
13	15	GET HARD	RC	6	1	24,500	47,325	4,475,665
14	13	PUDSEY THE DOG	VC	2	7	18,300	18,300	124,241
15	18	HOUSE OF MAGIC	VC	4	4	24,521	24,521	457,792
16	10	LAST KNIGHTS	RC	3	1	0	15,010	1,131,972
17	14	COBBLER,THE	VC/NC/RC	4	2	3,227	10,870	1,679,569
18		MAY IN THE SUMMER	NC/CR	1	3	4,535	7,680	7,680
19	9	FORGER	NC	2	1	2,585	4,771	238,025
20	8	DUFF	RC	2	1	0	4,510	238,858
21	24	UNBEATABLES,THE	NC	4	2	3,685	4,215	299,696
22	26	ASTERIX	NC	9	1	4,275	4,380	820,587
23	19	FOCUS	RC	10	1	0	4,005	9,457,515
24	20	DIVERGENT SERIES,THE: INSURGENT	VC/NC	7	2	1,170	2,232	8,476,620
* VC: VOX CINEMAS
* GF: GULF FILM
* PP: PRIME PICTURES
* IF: ITALIA FILM
* RE: RE-RUN

‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ hulks out ‘Hot Pursuit’ with $77.2 million!!

“Avengers: Age of Ultron” iced out “Hot Pursuit” at the weekend box office, picking up $77.2 million and topping charts for a second consecutive time.

Disney and Marvel’s comic book adventure has made $312.9 million domestically since debuting Stateside 10 days ago. That massive figure makes it the second-fastest film to clear $300 million domestically, and its sophomore weekend is the second-biggest in movie history, surpassing “Avatar’s” $75.6 million haul.

The film “Avengers: Age of Ultron” trails on both counts? Its predecessor, 2012’s “Marvel’s The Avengers,” which had earned $373 million at a similar point in its run after scoring a $103 million second weekend.

Internationally, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” picked up $68 million, pushing the film to $875.3 million globally. Given that major markets such as China and Japan are still left to open and domestic audiences continue to embrace the film, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” should have no trouble becoming the second 2015 release to clear $1 billion globally, behind “Furious 7.”

With Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and the rest of the super team dominating ticket sales, Warner Bros.’ “Hot Pursuit” landed with a thud, picking up a frosty $13.3 million opening from 3,003 locations. The Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara retread of “The Heat” was crippled by withering reviews, with its debut falling short of projections that pegged an opening of $18 million or higher. It’s also on the low end of Witherspoon’s recent bows for more commercial fare such as “Water for Elephants” ($16.8 million debut) and “This Means War” ($17.4 million debut).

The film about an anal retentive cop (Witherspoon) trying to protect a drug boss’s widow (Vergara) was also backed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Witherspoon’s Pacific Standard production company. “Hot Pursuit” attracted an audience that was 62% female and 82% over 25 years old.

Beyond the modest debut number, a C+ CinemaScore means word of mouth will be of the cautionary variety. The budget was a relatively economical $35 million, but the film will struggle to become profitable without a much warmer reception in foreign territories.

In third place, Lionsgate’s “The Age of Adaline” earned roughly $5.6 million, dropping 10% from its previous haul and bringing its total to $31.5 million.

Universal’s “Furious 7″ slid into fourth place with $5.2 million, pushing its domestic total to $338.4 million after six weeks in theaters. Globally, the action sequel has earned $1.5 billion.

Sony’s “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2″ snagged fifth place with just under $5.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $58.1 million.

A24 continued to expand “Ex Machina,” moving it from 1,279 theaters to 2,004 locations where it earned $3.5 million. The twisty sci-fi thriller has made $15.7 million during its theatrical run.

Among arthouse titles, IFC Films released the Jack Black/James Marsden high school reunion comedy “The D Train” on 1,009 screens, where it did a mediocre $469,185.

Fox Searchlight tried to capitalize on the Mother’s Day holiday, moving “Far From the Madding Crowd” from 10 to 99 theaters and pulling in $760,721 in the process. The adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel has earned $1 million since debuting last week.

Despite the presence of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the overall box office trailed ticket sales from the year-ago period by roughly 5%. “Avengers: Age of Ultron” easily topped the second weekend of “Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which made $35.5 million in its sophomore frame, but “Hot Pursuit” paled in comparison to the $49 million debut of “Neighbors.”

Next weekend brings “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Pitch Perfect 2,” two highly anticipated sequels that should goose ticket sales.

via Variety

Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)	$77.20M	$312.59M	2
	Hot Pursuit (2015)	$13.30M	$13.30M	1
	The Age of Adaline (2015)	$5.60M	$31.53M	3
	Furious Seven (2015)	$5.27M	$338.42M	6
	Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015)	$5.19M	$58.08M	4
	Ex Machina (2015)	$3.47M	$15.72M	5
	Home (2015)	$3.00M	$162.12M	7
	Woman in Gold (2015)	$1.65M	$26.98M	6
	Cinderella (2015)	$1.57M	$196.17M	9
	Cybernatural (2014)	$1.41M	$30.94M	4

Avengers: Age of Ultron smashes way to 2nd-best box-office debut ever but boxing match delivers a blow!!

Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: The Age of Ultron” packed a mighty punch with a smashing $187.7 million North American debut at the box office this weekend. But its hopes of topping the record for the biggest movie opening in Hollywood history were knocked out by a high-profile boxing match. Despite an electrifying U.S. rollout the kicked off summer, Disney’s superhero sequel will have to settle for the second-highest-grossing  three-day first weekend ever, behind the $207.4 million rung up by “The Avengers” in 2012. Disney and Marvel have the third-best too, with “Iron Man 3” opening to $174.1 in 2013.

“Age of Ultron” was operating in rare air all weekend. Its $87 million first day was the best Friday ever and the second-best single day ever, behind only “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.” Its $56.6 million Saturday is the third best ever, and its Sunday is expected to rank with the best as well. And its opening weekend surpasses the entire domestic haul of “Captain America” ($177  million) and “Thor” ($181 million).

Even without the record, moviegoers went home happy and awarded “Age of Ultron” an “A” CinemaScore.

via The Wrap

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)	$187.66M	$187.66M	1
	The Age of Adaline (2015)	$6.25M	$23.42M	2
	Furious Seven (2015)	$6.11M	$330.54M	5
	Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015)	$5.55M	$51.19M	3
	Home (2015)	$3.30M	$158.13M	6
	Cinderella (2015)	$2.36M	$193.65M	8
	Ex Machina (2015)	$2.23M	$10.87M	4
	Cybernatural (2014)	$1.99M	$28.53M	3
	The Longest Ride (2015)	$1.70M	$33.24M	4
	Woman in Gold (2015)	$1.68M	$24.59M	5

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Furious 7 rules the Box office for the 4th & final week before Avengers: Age of Ultron opens!!

 

For the fourth weekend in a row, Furious 7 is the number one movie at the domestic box office. That puts the film in rarefied company, as only the fourth film of the past decade to spend four consecutive weeks in first place. The other three four-time champions were Avatar, The Dark Knight and The Hunger Games. According to studio estimates, Furious 7 earned another $18.2 million between Friday and Sunday, or a drop of just 37% over last weekend. That brings the film’s domestic total to $320.5 million after 24 days. But the real story continues to be F7’s momentum overseas. Already the fastest film to break $1 billion in global sales (17 days), Furious 7 has now earned $1 billion from its international territories alone. With over $1.3 billion in total, the film has surpassed Frozen to become the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide. At this point, a final gross of $1.4 billion seems likely, which would put Furious 7 behind only Avatar, Titanic and Marvel’s The Avengers on the list of all-time global hits.

And speaking of The Avengers, have you heard that the sequel is due to hit theatres next weekend? Marvel’s publicity efforts have been a little low-key so don’t feel bad if it slipped your mind. In case you are anticipating Avengers: Age of Ultron, I can tell you that early projections have the sequel opening on par with its predecessor, which claimed a record $207.4 million in 2012. Of course, given the infamous ‘Avengers bump’ that greeted the last three titles from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) it wouldn’t be surprising if Ultron wound up setting a new record with, say, $215 million. Then again, no one wants to be the one to make a box office prediction of that size and get it wrong. Better to be cautiously optimistic and then act like it was all a foregone conclusion when the estimates come in.

Estimates for The Age of Adaline came in at $13.3 million, knocking the drama from first place on Friday to third for the weekend. But considering initial projections had the Blake Lively drama earning just $12 million, third place can be seen as a win in this case. Age of Adaline has had mixed reviews (53% on Rotten Tomatoes) but received an A- from CinemaScore audiences, so it’s possible that it will hold well in its sophomore frame.

In its own second weekend, Sony’s Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 remained in second place. The sequel’s $15.5 million weekend estimate represents a drop of just 35%, which is much better than expected considering Blart’s terrible word of mouth. Then again, I noticed that the film’s Rotten Tomato rating has soared from 0% last weekend to a robust 4% this morning, so perhaps Sony’s luck is starting to turn?

After expanding to 1,255 locations, Ex Machina earned an estimated $5.4 million this weekend. That qualifies as the biggest frame ever for indie distributor A24, whose previous high was the $4.8 million of 2013’s Spring Breakers. Written and directed by Alex Garland (28 Days Later), Ex Machina has now earned just under $7 million in its domestic run.

Via Collider

Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Furious Seven (2015)	$18.26M	$320.54M	4
	Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015)	$15.50M	$43.95M	2
	The Age of Adaline (2015)	$13.38M	$13.38M	1
	Home (2015)	$8.30M	$153.78M	5
	Cybernatural (2014) aka Unfriended	$6.24M	$25.16M	2
	Ex Machina (2015)	$5.44M	$6.92M	3
	The Longest Ride (2015)	$4.37M	$30.40M	3
	Get Hard (2015)	$3.91M	$84.07M	5
	Monkey Kingdom (2015)	$3.55M	$10.26M	2
	Woman in Gold (2015)	$3.50M	$21.64M	4

Unfriended & Paul Blart Cannot Keep up with Furious 7 at the BO!!

The fast cars sequel withe the gravity-defying stunts is barreling toward the $300 million mark Stateside, having already hurtled past the $1 billion mark globally. Domestically, “Furious 7″ has earned $294.4 million.

Despite “Furious 7’s” continued dominance, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2″ did better than expected, pulling in a solid $24 million across 3,633 locations. It had been projected to fall short of the $20 million barrier. However, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2″ could not match the $31.8 million debut of the first film in the Blart chronicles.

With a modest $30 million production budget, the sequel will be profitable, Sony execs said.

Universal has been racking up big numbers with “Furious 7,” and the studio scored another hit with the micro-budget horror film “Unfriended.” The look at a group of teenagers engaging in some digital-age bullying cost a measly $1 million to produce, returning that many times over after one weekend in theaters. “Unfriended” made $16 million across 2,739 theaters. Going into the weekend, the studio had predicted a debut in the $12 million range, but the movie struck a chord with teen viewers.

Pity poor “Child 44.” The Soviet serial killer thriller with Tom Hardy bombed, earning a doleful $600,000 in just 510 theaters. Lionsgate, the studio distributing the film, did sell some foreign territories to mitigate its financial exposure and brought in check-writing partners such as Worldview Entertainment, but with a $50 million pricetag, “Child 44″ is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest flops.

With “Furious 7,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2,” and “Unfriended” taking up the first three slots, the top five was rounded out by “Home” with $10.3 million and “The Longest Ride” with $6.9 million. “Home” has made $142.6 million since debuting last month, while “The Longest Ride” has lassoed $23.5 million.

In limited release, “Ex Machina” expanded from four to 39 screens this weekend, generating the highest per-screen average in the country for the second week in a row, and adding $814,293 to its haul. The brainy sci-fi film has made $1.1 million.

Noah Baumbach’s mid-life crisis comedy “While We’re Young” made $1.6 million from 713 theaters. It has taken $4.2 million since debuting four weeks ago.

Via Variety

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Furious Seven (2015)	$29.06M	$294.41M	3
	Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015)	$24.00M	$24.00M	1
	Cybernatural aka Unfriended (2014)	$16.02M	$16.02M	1
	Home (2015)	$10.30M	$142.61M	4
	The Longest Ride (2015)	$6.85M	$23.51M	2
	Get Hard (2015)	$4.83M	$78.28M	4
	Monkey Kingdom (2015)	$4.72M	$4.72M	1
	Woman in Gold (2015)	$4.59M	$15.94M	3
	Insurgent (2015)	$4.15M	$120.61M	5
	Cinderella (2015)	$3.87M	$186.32M	6

Furious 7  Stomps New Releases at the BO With $60.6 million!!

“Furious 7” roared to the top of the box office chart for the second weekend in a row, picking up $60.6 million and driving its stateside total to a massive $252.5 million. That’s a slender 59% drop from the Universal Pictures release’s record-breaking $147.2 million debut and puts “Furious 7” on track to be the highest-grossing film in the history of the “Fast and Furious” franchise. By debuting in April, “Furious 7” avoided being cannibalized by other major summer tentpole films. The next heavyweight to enter the multiplexes is “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which doesn’t hit screens until May 1.

Records continue to be left in the rear view mirror. “Furious 7” is now the fastest Universal release to cross $200 million, jetting by that barrier in only eight days. It took “Despicable Me 2,” the studio’s previous high-water mark, 11 days to reach that milestone. “Furious 7” is also one of only a dozen movies to do more than $60 million in its second weekend.

Fan interest in seeing how “Furious 7” would handle the death of star Paul Walker is helping to drive ticket buyers to the sequel. Walker was killed in a car accident in 2013 at the age of 40 before filming was completed on the picture. DreamWorks Animation’s “Home” continued to rope in family audiences, scoring a second place finish and $19 million. The alien invasion film has earned $129.6 million in three weeks of release.

Newcomer “The Longest Ride” debuted to $13.5 million across 3,366 theaters, in line with projections. The Fox release was on the low end of debuts for a film based on a Nicholas Sparks‘ literary property, failing to match “Safe Haven‘s” $21.4 million bow or the $22.5 million kick-off for “The Lucky One.” It did do significantly better than “The Best of Me,” the most recent sudser from Sparks, which opened to a dispiriting $10 million last October. Critics were savage, as they usually are with Sparks’ work, but audiences seemed to enjoy the romantic drama, handing it an A CinemaScore rating. “The Longest Ride” got its strongest response from the middle of the country, the so-called heartland, and attracted an audience that was 73% female and 54% under the age of 25.

Prison comedy “Get Hard” picked up $8.6 million in its third weekend of release to nab fourth place. The Warner Bros. film has earned $71.2 million since debuting in March. “Cinderella” completed the top five, earning $7.2 million and pushing its domestic total to $180.8 million. In limited release, “Ex Machina” did impressive business, snagging $249,956 from just four screens. The science-fiction thriller was buoyed by sterling reviews. Noah Baumbach’s “While We’re Young” performed well after expanding from 34 to 246 screens, earning $1.4 million. The comic look at a documentarian in the throes of a mid-life crisis has earned $2.4 million since debuting three weeks ago. The Weinstein Company’s “Woman in Gold” also had a big expansion, moving from 258 to 1,504 locations and earning $5.8 million in the process. The drama about a fight to recover art stolen by the Nazis has made north of $9 million in two weeks. Backstage drama “Clouds of Sils Maria” opened to $69,729 on three screens, for a $23,243 per screen average.

But the weekend was all about “Furious 7,” which clearly has its eyes on making $1 billion and may get there by the time it ends its run.

Via Variety

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Furious 7 (2015)	$60.59M	$252.52M	2
	Home (2015)	$19.00M	$129.55M	3
	The Longest Ride (2015)	$13.50M	$13.50M	1
	Get Hard (2015)	$8.64M	$71.20M	3
	Cinderella (2015)	$7.23M	$180.77M	5
	Insurgent (2015)	$6.85M	$114.85M	4
	Woman in Gold (2015)	$5.85M	$9.30M	2
	It Follows (2014)	$2.03M	$11.80M	5
	Danny Collins (2015)	$1.60M	$2.50M	4
	While We’re Young (2014)	$1.38M	$2.36M	3

Furious 7 smashes records with $384 millions opening worldwide!!

Looks like the whole world went to watch the seventh installment of this crazy franchise!!

The film also starring late actor Paul Walker – brought in a record-breaking $143.6m (U.S only) during its opening weekend, beating the likes of last year’s Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier.

Its earnings make it the 9th largest opening weekend of all time, and the top earning non-superhero movie of all time.

“This is a bittersweet installment in the franchise. Walker’s passing made this movie more intriguing for people who hadn’t seen some of the installments,” said Phil Contrino, BoxOffice.com chief analyst.

“It raised awareness and its success is a tribute to him.”

He added to Variety: “This is the next member of the billion-dollar-club, and that’s a rarefied place to be. This thing is on fire.”

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Furious 7 (2015)	$147.19M	$147.19M	1
	Home (2015)	$27.01M	$95.24M	2
	Get Hard (2015)	$13.13M	$57.22M	2
	Cinderella (2015)	$10.18M	$167.14M	4
	Insurgent (2015)	$10.13M	$103.51M	3
	It Follows (2014)	$2.51M	$8.59M	4
	Woman in Gold (2015)	$2.09M	$2.19M	1
	Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)	$1.81M	$122.37M	8
	Do You Believe? (2015)	$1.54M	$9.86M	3
	The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)	$1.08M	$30.14M	5

 

‘Home’ Invades ‘Get Hard’ at the BO!!!

Divergent Sequel Insurgent crushes Sean Penn’s Taken version The Gunman at the BO!!

Two women-centered films led a strong box office weekend — Insurgent and Cinderella — and they couldn’t be more different. In its opening weekend, the second installment of the Divergent series took the weekend box office with a haul that matched its predecessor’s with $54 million (the first brought in a touch more at the same time last year with $54.6 million). Cinderella backed up its monster debut last weekend with $34.5 million, bringing its domestic haul to $122 million. The grisly, male action flicks fared poorly. The other new release, Sean Penn‘s The Gunman had an embarrassing debut with just $5 million. It couldn’t even edge out Liam Neeson‘s Run All Night, which brought in $5.1 million in its second week. Why don’t we have more female-driven films again?

	Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Insurgent (2015)	$54.03M	$54.03M	1
	Cinderella (2015)	$34.49M	$122.04M	2
	Run All Night (2015)	$5.12M	$19.72M	2
	The Gunman (2015)	$5.01M	$5.01M	1
	Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)	$4.60M	$114.57M	6
	Do You Believe? (2015)	$4.00M	$4.00M	1
	The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)	$3.45M	$24.13M	3
	Focus (2015)	$3.30M	$49.40M	4
	Chappie (2015)	$2.65M	$28.30M	3
	The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015)	$2.35M	$158.79M	7

 Cinderella has a fairy tale start! While Run All Night Stumbles to walk! at the BO!

Earning more than the rest of Top 10 combined, Disney’s Cinderella (2015) easily took the top spot at the box office this weekend. While Liam Neeson‘s Run All Night got off to a very slow start, while indie horror flick It Follows had a great debut in limited release. Cinderella opened to $67.9 million. That ranks seventh all-time among March debuts. Compared to Disney’s recent live-action fantasies, Cinderella‘s opening was roughly on par with Maleficent ($69.4 million), though it was noticeably lower than Oz The Great and Powerful ($79.1 million). It also opened well above Snow White and the Huntsman ($56.2 million). This is all the more impressive considering Cinderella‘s budget was a modest $95 million, which is around half as much as the rest of those movies cost. Liam Neeson’s Run All Night opened in a distant second place with $11 million. That’s a fraction of Non-Stop‘s $28.9 million debut, and is also lower than A Walk Among the Tombstones‘s poor $12.8 million start. Kingsman: The Secret Service eased 25 percent to $6.2 million, which was enough to reclaim a spot in the Top Three. The comic book adaptation has so far earned $107.4 million, and now appears on its way to over $120 million total. In its third weekend, Focus (2015) fell 43 percent to $5.74 million. The Will Smith/Margot Robbie flick has now grossed $44 million. Chappie rounded out the Top Five with $5.7 million. That’s off 57 percent from opening weekend, which is a bit steeper than Elysium (54 percent) and District 9 (51 percent). Through 10 days, the Neill Blomkamp sci-fi movie has taken in a weak $23.3 million. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel eased 33 percent to $5.7 million. It was playing in an additional 449 theaters, which likely helped contribute to that light decline. The comedy sequel has now earned $18.05 million. Radius-TWC released indie horror movie It Follows at four locations this weekend, where it earned $160,089. That translates to a very strong $40,022 per-theater average. Expect this to expand aggressively in the next few weeks; it’s unlikely that it makes it nationwide, but it should top out with at least 200 locations.

Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Cinderella(2015)	$67.88M	$67.88M	1
	Run All Night(2015)	$11.01M	$11.01M	1
	Kingsman: The Secret Service(2014)	$6.21M	$107.39M	5
	Focus(2015)	$5.74M	$43.97M	3
	Chappie(2015)	$5.70M	$23.32M	2
	The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel(2015)	$5.69M	$18.05M	2
	The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water(2015)	$4.02M	$154.61M	6
	McFarland, USA(2015)	$3.60M	$34.89M	4
	Fifty Shades of Grey(2015)	$2.86M	$161.35M	5
	The DUFF(2015)	$2.85M	$30.27M	4

Reported by Box Office Mojo and Exhibitor Relations © 2015

 

‘Chappie’ Stumbles to the Top, while ‘Unfinished Business’ crashes at the BO!

Writer-director Neill Blombkamp’s robot saga “Chappie” opened with $13.3 million to lead the box office, but moviegoers clearly decided to stay away from the cinemas which is currently overloaded with R-rated films. Chappie knocked off Will Smith‘s caper comedy “Focus,” which was second with $9.7 million. The holdover spy ‘word of mouth hit’ film “Kingsman: The Secret Service” was fourth with $8.3 million. Vince Vaughn comedy “Unfinished Business” bombed and barely made the top ten with $4.8 million in its debut, giving the actor five straight misfires. Damn!

Title	Weekend	Gross	Weeks
	Chappie(2015) (Read My Review)	$13.30M	$13.30M	1
	Focus(2015) (Read My Review)	$10.02M	$34.57M	2
	The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel(2015)	$8.60M	$8.60M	1
	Kingsman: The Secret Service(2014) (Read My Review)	$8.30M	$98.03M	4
	The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water(2015)	$7.00M	$148.99M	5
	Fifty Shades of Grey(2015) (Read My Review)	$5.60M	$156.45M	4
	McFarland, USA(2015)	$5.32M	$29.43M	3
	The Lazarus Effect(2015)	$5.10M	$17.40M	2
	The DUFF(2015)	$4.85M	$26.12M	3
	Unfinished Business(2015)	$4.80M	$4.80M	1