SUNDAY UPDATE
In the immortal words of Nick Lowe…and so it goes. June Gloom has given way to July Why as it’s yet another down weekend as the box office as moviegoers found other ways to entertain themselves on a Friday night. Universal’s “The Purge: Anarchy” opened well at $28.4 million and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” held in fairly well to win its second consecutive weekend, however the rest of the new openers stumbled badly coming out of the starting gate.
“The Purge Anarchy” led a less than impressive group of newcomers and although the film didn’t match the $34 million opening of the original, an opening at $28.4 million has to be considered a success and the film’s Cinemascore came it at an acceptable B+. Disney’s “Planes: Fire and Rescue” debuted to a less than stunning $18.0 million for the weekend, well behind weekend projections. Perhaps we should have tempered our projections on the film, which received an A Cinemascore as most major studio animated titles seem to do these days, as the original “Planes” only mustered an opening three day stanza of $22 million. But the real clunker is Sony’s “Sex Tape” was the real bummer of the week, coming in at a mere $15.0 million for the three days. How did that happen you ask? A Cinemascore of C+ and poor critics reviews are both likely suspects and pre-release buzz, which had been fairly high in the weeks leading up to release, appeared to peter out as we approached opening weekend.
In limited news, the juggernaut known as “Boyhood” continues to roll on. The IFC film expanded to 34 screens this week and will gross $1.2 million.
UPDATED SUNDAY WEEKEND TOP 10
1) DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES—FOX—$36 MILLION—DOWN 50%—$139 MILLION CUME
2) THE PURGE: ANARCHY—UNIVERSAL—$28.4 MILLION
3) PLANES: FIRE AND RESCUE—BUENA VISTA—$18 MILLION
4) SEX TAPE—SONY—$15 MILLION
5) TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION—PARAMOUNT—$10.0 MILLION—DOWN 38%–$227 MILLION CUME
6) TAMMY—WARNER BROTHERS—$7.6 MILLION—DOWN 39%—$71 MILLION CUME
7) 22 JUMP STREET—SONY—$4.7 MILLION—DOWN 27%—$180 MILLION CUME
8) HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2—FOX/DWA—$3.8 MILLION—DOWN 37%—$160 MILLION CUME
9) MALEFICENT—BUENA VISTA—$3.3 MILLION—DOWN 21%—$228 MILLION CUME
10) EARTH TO ECHO—RELATIVITY—$3.2 MILLION—DOWN 40%—$31 MILLION CUME
Bubbling under the top 10 are “Begin Again”, the Weinstein music based rom/com featuring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo, which grossed $2.7 million in 1,302 theatres, Dinesh D’Souza’s “America” which keeps riding a brilliant PR campaign to $1.7 million this week for a cume of $11.4 million and the art house machine known as “Boyhood”, which keeps selling out auditoriums to the tune of $1.2 million in only 34 theatres. Congratulations to Mark Boxer and everyone at IFC on the success of the film,
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