Weekend Box Office (July 31- August 2, 2015)
THIS WEEKEND Now in his fourth decade of anchoring number one action hits, Tom Cruise hit the top spot with the launch of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, the fifth film in the lucrative spy franchise, with an estimated $56M. Averaging a terrific $14,156 from 3,956 locations, the PG-13 pic saw a high 15% of the weekend business come from IMAX screens. Rogue Nation follows Ghost Protocol which reinvigorated the series in 2011 after 2006's MI3 was an underperformer.
Budgeted at $150M - a respectable level for a five-quel anchored by a major star - the pic drew rave reviews from film critics and also satisfied the popcorn crowd as the CinemaScore was a solid A-. Saturday sales saw only a scant dip from Friday's opening day figure which also included Thursday night pre-shows so word-of-mouth is encouraging. Studio data showed that the audience was 62% male and 81% over 25 - not surprising for an action sequel led by a superstar from the 1980s.
International markets rocked with Rogue Nation debuting to an estimated $65M led by Korea's $17.1M which was the second largest opening weekend of this year for a foreign film there behind only the Avengers sequel. With a $121M global launch, this new chapter will try to reach the heights of Ghost Protocol which ended with nearly $700M worldwide.
Warner Bros. stumbled with its new R-rated comedy Vacation which bowed to an estimated $14.9M from 3,411 theaters for a mild $4,354 average. A continuation of the Chevy Chase comedy franchise with the son as the central character earned weak reviews and did not impress paying audiences much either as it got a B CinemaScore grade. Unlike with the studio's very successful R-rated road trip summer hit We're the Millers, good word-of-mouth did not appear for Vacation from the mid-week launch so the weekend period failed to enjoy a boost. The five-day gross was $21.2M. As predicted a couple of months ago, this summer's hit comedies have been coming from the female-led movies, not the male-led ones.
Two-time leader Ant-Man dropped to third place and grossed an estimated $12.6M, off 49%. That decline is not bad considering a big action sequel entered the marketplace. Disney's total is $132.1M domestically and $291.6M worldwide. Global smash Minions took fourth with an estimated $12.2M, down 47%, and $287.3M to date for Universal. Monster numbers keep coming in overseas with the worldwide tally now at a staggering $854.6M with China and Italy still to come. Reaching $1.1 billion is very likely.
Adam Sandler's latest summer comedy Pixels stumbled 57% in its second weekend to an estimated $10.4M giving Sony only $45.6M to date. The $88M effects-driven pic looks to reach about $70M from North America and will need much cash from overseas markets to become a worthwhile investment. Trainwreck has been the comedy holding up well with audiences and dropped just 44% to an estimated $9.7M for $79.7M to date for Universal on its way to about $110M.
The well-liked boxing pic Southpaw took a hit in its second weekend falling 55% to an estimated $7.5M thanks in part to the arrival of a major adult-male-skewing offering in MI5. With $31.6M to date, The Weinstein Co. may end with about $50M. Fellow sophomore Paper Towns had no new competition for its young female crowd, but still took a nosedive tumbling 64% to an estimated $4.6M. The Fox release has banked $23.8M on its way to around $33M and luckily was not an expensive entry.
Summer juggernauts attracting entire families rounded out the top ten. Pixar's Inside Out slipped only 39% to an estimated $4.5M upping its cume to $329.6M. Universal's Jurassic World collected an estimated $3.8M, off 47%, and has amassed $631.5M. Only one film in history has ever grossed more in its initial run - Avatar. Titanic's lifetime take is higher than World's, but that includes the 3D re-release from 2012. Impressive global tallies now stand at $602.3M for Inside Out and $1.56 billion for Jurassic World which opens in its final market of Japan later this week.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $136.2M which was down 19% from last year when Guardians of the Galaxy opened at number one with an August record $94.3M; but up 16% from 2013 when 2 Guns opened in the top spot with $27.1M.
Compared to projections, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation opened on target with my $56M forecast while Vacation came in very close to my $16M prediction.
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Watch the trailer for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2.
Be sure to check back on Monday for final studio figures and again on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Fantastic Four, Ricki and the Flash, Shaun the Sheep, and The Gift all open.
| # | Title | Jul 31 - Aug 2 | Jul 24 - 26 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | Distributor |
| 1 | Mission: Impossible - Rouge Nation | $ 55,520,089 | 3,956 | 1 | $ 14,034 | $ 55,520,089 | Paramount | ||
| 2 | Vacation | 14,681,108 | 3,411 | 1 | 4,304 | 21,003,442 | Warner Bros. | ||
| 3 | Ant-Man | 12,802,644 | 24,909,332 | -48.6 | 3,322 | 3 | 3,854 | 132,331,563 | Disney |
| 4 | Minions | 12,387,375 | 22,933,960 | -46.0 | 3,575 | 4 | 3,465 | 287,578,650 | Universal |
| 5 | Pixels | 10,503,023 | 24,011,616 | -56.3 | 3,723 | 2 | 2,821 | 45,714,520 | Sony |
| 6 | Trainwreck | 9,605,585 | 17,281,950 | -44.4 | 2,960 | 3 | 3,245 | 79,614,985 | Universal |
| 7 | Southpaw | 7,617,683 | 16,701,294 | -54.4 | 2,772 | 2 | 2,748 | 31,675,168 | Weinstein Co. |
| 8 | Paper Towns | 4,637,894 | 12,650,140 | -63.3 | 3,031 | 2 | 1,530 | 23,854,333 | Fox |
| 9 | Inside Out | 4,511,004 | 7,414,528 | -39.2 | 1,904 | 7 | 2,369 | 329,587,896 | Disney |
| 10 | Jurassic World | 3,901,400 | 7,181,175 | -45.7 | 1,912 | 8 | 2,040 | 631,601,030 | Universal |
| Top 5 | $ 105,894,239 | $ 105,838,152 | 0.1 | ||||||
| Top 10 | 136,167,805 | 138,370,240 | -1.6 | ||||||
| Top 10 vs. 2014 | 136,167,805 | 167,782,433 | -18.8 | ||||||
| Top 10 vs. 2013 | 136,167,805 | 117,938,083 | 15.5 | ||||||
| Below the Top 10: | |||||||||
| Mr. Holmes | 2,354,393 | 2,868,335 | -17.9 | 898 | 3 | 2,622 | 10,325,772 | Roadside/Miramax | |
| Terminator Genisys | 943,192 | 2,417,910 | -61.0 | 736 | 5 | 1,282 | 87,693,413 | Paramount | |
| Bajrangi Bhaijaan | 697,456 | 1,631,745 | -57.3 | 257 | 3 | 2,714 | 6,961,850 | Eros | |
| Magic Mike XXL | 645,617 | 1,877,169 | -65.6 | 565 | 5 | 1,143 | 64,761,407 | Warner Bros. | |
| Irrational Man | 496,966 | 255,243 | 94.7 | 135 | 3 | 3,681 | 1,134,297 | Sony Classics | |
| Ted 2 | 494,900 | 970,920 | -49.0 | 505 | 6 | 980 | 80,538,470 | Universal |
This column is updated three times each week: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday (post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of the author.
Last Updated: August 2, 2015 at 7:15PM ET
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