Weekend Box Office (July 3 - 5, 2015)

by Gitesh Pandya

THIS WEEKEND American moviegoers were still interested in theme park disaster movie fun and animated emotions as the top two holdovers from the last two weeks were still the most popular choices over the Independence Day holiday frame.

Sneaking ahead with its first appearance in first place was the Pixar blockbuster Inside Out with $29.8M, off 43% according to final studio figures. With the Fourth of July falling on a Saturday this year, it caused major shifts in daily play as Friday was the big day for films, Saturday seeing a drop due to outdoor holiday distractions, and Sunday having a nice bounce back.

The Disney toon has grossed a sensational $245.9M to date and is heading well past the $300M mark from North America alone. Playing in less than half of the international marketplace, Inside Out has taken in $117.3M from overseas for a current global take of $363M. Pixar can now claim that all of its films have hit Number one at some point in their runs. All previous pics premiered there in their first weekend of wide release.

The runaway dino-sequel Jurassic World was very close behind in the runner-up spot with $29.2M in its fourth weekend. Down 46%, the Universal smash pushed its cume to $556.5M and set another box office record becoming the fastest film in history to break the $550M domestic mark doing it in only 24 days. That was a full week earlier than the last record-holder The Avengers which needed 31 days.

Jurassic World also passed The Dark Knight to take the number four spot on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters. The international haul surged to $826.9M putting the global tally at an incredible $1.39 billion making it the number five movie of all-time worldwide.

Like many aging action franchises, Terminator Genisys saw weak American interest in its debut, but will rely on solid international sales to try to get it to reach breakeven. The PG-13 entry opened to $27M over the weekend period and $42.5M since its launch on Tuesday night with pre-shows. That marks the worst performance of any of the four Terminator sequels dating back to 1991. The last installment, 2009's Terminator Salvation bowed to a $51.9M four-day holiday gross and the prior chapter, 2003's Terminator 3, did $72.4M over its five-plus day opening over its Independence Day holiday.

Genisys, which cost $155M to produce, averaged $7,190 from 3,758 locations over the weekend. Reviews were negative while audiences gave a decent B+ grade from CinemaScore. Older men led the way as the audience breakdown was 62% male and 65% over 25 with Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to the series.

Overseas markets brought some good news with $73.3M this weekend pushing the cume to $85.3M and the global total to $128M. With major markets like Japan and Germany still to open, and China not yet setting a release date, the road ahead could be bright and the worldwide total should eventually break the $400M mark. Paramount is planning two more sequels.

The holiday weekend's other new sequel also failed to open as well as its predecessor, though a much lower cost will put profitability in sight. Channing Tatum's Magic Mike XXL debuted to $12.9M over the Friday-to-Sunday weekend period and $27.9M since its start on Tuesday night with 7pm pre-shows. The 5.5-day holiday opening fell well short of the $39.1M non-holiday three-day debut of the first Magic Mike from late June in 2012. Audiences were not as excited the second time around.

XXL played out very upfront with the Wednesday opening day delivering a solid $9.3M which ended up accounting for one third of the whole week's business. Friday did not see the kind of jumps that other films had and Saturday's 4th of July holiday brought a stronger fall than what competing films suffered. Over the weekend, the R-rated pic averaged a weak $3,832 from 3,355 locations.

The extreme gender split saw a 96% female crowd with 51% being over 35. The CinemaScore was a good A-. Adult women showed up right away, but then there was not much of an audience left after the first couple of days. Luckily a $15M production cost will prevent losses.

Taking a nosedive in its second weekend was the R-rated comedy Ted 2 which fell 67% to $11.2M. Universal has banked $58.5M to date and is heading for a $65-70M final which will be just a fraction of first film's $218.8M. Ted and Magic Mike both opened against each other on the same day three summers ago and now their sequels are both performing much worse.

The military dog film Max held up reasonably well with $6.6M, off 46%, for a new total of $25.4M for Warner Bros. Fox's Spy dropped only 35% to $5.1M raising the total to $97.5M. Falling 48% in its sixth frame, San Andreas collected $2.8M giving Warner Bros. $147.2M to date.

Rounding out the top ten were hot indie comedies from Sundance which are now trying to find paying audiences in the summer. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl expanded nationwide and grossed $1.2M from 870 locations giving Fox Searchlight $3.9M overall. Open Road's Dope didn't platform but instead went wide upfront. It fell 60% in its third weekend to $1.1M for $14.1M to date.

The top ten films grossed $127M which was up 10% from last year when Transformers: Age of Extinction stayed at number one with $37.1M; but down 42% from 2013 when Despicable Me 2 opened in the top spot with $83.5M.


Compared to five-day holiday projections, Terminator Genisys opened very close to my $46M forecast while Magic Mike XXL debuted well below my $51M prediction.

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Watch the trailer for Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Minions, The Gallows , and Self/Less all open.

# Title Jul 3 - 5 Jun 26 - 28 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Inside Out $ 29,771,224 $ 52,323,354 -43.1 4,158 3 $ 7,160 $ 245,891,395 Disney
2 Jurassic World 29,242,025 54,532,615 -46.4 3,737 4 7,825 556,542,980 Universal
3 Terminator Genisys 27,018,486 3,758 1 7,190 42,474,183 Paramount
4 Magic Mike XXL 12,857,184 3,355 1 3,832 27,890,003 Warner Bros.
5 Ted 2 11,171,520 33,507,870 -66.7 3,448 2 3,240 58,500,630 Universal
6 Max 6,617,389 12,155,254 -45.6 2,870 2 2,306 25,378,166 Warner Bros.
7 Spy 5,137,677 7,911,786 -35.1 2,387 5 2,152 97,536,300 Fox
8 San Andreas 2,824,063 5,402,416 -47.7 1,672 6 1,689 147,190,443 Warner Bros.
9 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl 1,246,803 992,439 25.6 870 4 1,433 3,931,842 Fox Searchlight
10 Dope 1,118,117 2,782,840 -59.8 863 3 1,296 14,124,389 Open Road
11 Mad Max: Fury Road 1,016,016 1,764,436 -42.4 561 8 1,811 149,006,895 Warner Bros.
12 Avengers: Age of Ultron 886,151 1,688,938 -47.5 589 10 1,505 454,231,429 Disney
13 Love & Mercy 742,048 1,272,491 -41.7 440 5 1,686 10,529,863 Roadside Attr.
14 Pitch Perfect 2 567,500 1,464,180 -61.2 454 8 1,250 182,346,060 Universal
15 Insidious: Chapter 3 558,121 2,004,222 -72.2 651 5 857 51,232,716 Focus
16 I'll See You In My Dreams 468,250 609,698 -23.2 240 8 1,951 5,836,504 Bleecker St.
17 Faith of Our Fathers 438,186 344 1 1,274 626,977 Pureflix
18 Tomorrowland 383,037 1,051,966 -63.6 297 7 1,290 91,040,567 Disney
19 The Overnight 325,575 150,681 116.1 307 3 1,061 628,913 Orchard
20 Home 290,760 399,315 -27.2 257 15 1,131 175,366,853 Fox
Top 5 $ 110,060,439 $ 160,430,879 -31.4
Top 10 127,004,488 174,073,731 -27.0
Top 20 132,680,132 181,448,324 -26.9
Top 20 vs. 2014 132,680,132 128,129,109 3.6

Last Updated: July 8, 2015 at 11:50PM ET

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