Here’s what happened at the domestic box office this weekend: The summer movie season is over, and Hollywood responded by taking the weekend off to focus on the Toronto Film Festival (and announcing layoffs at Warner Bros and shuffling the executive ranks at DreamWorks and Paramount, etc.). So, the only new release, The Identical, absolutely bombed with just $1.9 million, failing to even crack the top 10. The 20th anniversary re-release of Forrest Gump in just over 300 IMAX theaters failed to even register half a million in gross. So, the top 10 stayed mostly the same, although Lucy did sneak back in at #10. The only real headline is that Guardians of the Galaxy set a new record [see below for more on that]. Otherwise, this was one of the worst weekends in terms of collective box office in the past decade, with only September 5-7, 2008 posting a lower combined gross from its top 12 releases. So, this kind of thing can happen on the first weekend of September since that’s when the NFL starts and kids are back in school, but it’s usually not as bad as it was this weekend. Let’s do the numbers:
Top 10 Estimated Domestic Totals (9/5-9/7)
1. Guardians of the Galaxy
- Weekend Gross=$10.1 million
- Total Gross to Date=$294.5 million
- Budget=$170 million
Foreign: $11.5m this weekend for a new international/worldwide split of $291.6m/$586.1m.
#1 again, what more is there to say about Guardians? Actually, it just set a new, very specific record. It is now the only Marvel Studios release to have four (non-consecutive) weekends spent at #1 in the domestic box office. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Avengers both spent three consecutive weeks at #1 whereas Guardians debuted at #1 before being unseated by TMNT for two weekends only to then regain the top spot for three weeks running now. As such, it can be now be regarded as the leggiest of all Marvel Studios films (or the one with the longest tail, longevity…however you choose to put it). Its worldwide total of just over $585m still seems a bit small for a post-Avengers Marvel Studios release, but that’s mostly because it has yet to play in Japan, China, and Italy, which will likely combine to get that worldwide gross up over $700m. It won’t actually make its way to China until the second week of October, though.
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Weekend Gross=$6.5 million
- Total Gross to Date=$174.6 million
- Budget=$125-150 million
Foreign: $8.7m this weekend for a new international/worldwide split of $125.6m/$300m
The fact that TMNT is still this high up on the list is more a product of the complete lack of competition than it is a testament to the film’s actual appeal and ability to draw repeat business. In fact, it’s performing pretty much on par with the summer average in terms of growth past opening weekend. You measure that by dividing a film’s total box office by its opening weekend, and the result is called “the multiplier”, with anything 2.0 or below being terrible and 6.0 or above being completely unheard of anymore. The higher the multiplier the more likely it is that people actually liked the movie as opposed to having simply been herded like cows to see it opening weekend. TMNT‘s current opening-weekend-to-total-domestic gross multiplier of 2.6 is just behind the average (2.8) for this summer’s 15 highest-grossing movies (Tammy had the best with 3.8, Godzilla was the worst with 2.1.). It’s also roughly similar to the multiplier (2.7) put up by the first G.I. Joe movie, which was another 80s nostalgia action flick dumped into August.
Yeah, yeah, yeah….forget all that. The true story going forward with TMNT will be how much more it adds to its international box office once it expands to Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the U.K.
3. If I Stay
- Weekend Gross=$5.7 million
- Total Gross to Date=$39.6 million
- Budget=$11 million
Foreign: $4.6m this weekend for a new international/worldwide split of $10.4m/$50.4m
The Fault in Our Stars, If I Stay‘s clear spiritual cousin, ended up as the most profitable film of the summer, with a worldwide gross 24 times its’ production budget. If I Stay was never going to come anywhere near that kind of business due to its comparatively smaller star power and prestige, yet there could still be those who are disappointed its falling so far behind Fault’s domestic ($124m) and worldwide ($293m) numbers. Yeah, sure, but with over $50m worldwide after costing just $11m to make If I Stay is certainly turning a profit.
4. Let’s Be Cops
- Weekend Gross=$5.4 million
- Total Gross to Date=$66.5 million
- Budget=$17 million
Foreign: $4.1m this weekend for a new international/worldwide split of $17.1m/$83.6m
Let’s Be Cops’ domestic/worldwide totals aren’t impressive as some of the summer’s earlier R-rated hits, like Neighbors and 22 Jump Street, but with a budget under $20m and a worldwide gross up to around $84m it has turned into a crazy profitable little movie for the studio even after you factor in their likely minimal prints/advertising costs. It’s better than they were likely hoping for when the debacle in Ferguson, MO went down during their opening week, presumably making the thought of cops abusing their power seem like no laughing matter.
5. The November Man
- Weekend Gross=$4.2 million
- Total Gross to Date=$17.8 million
- Budget=$20 million
Foreign: No international box office yet
From director Roger Donaldson, The November Man follows an ex-CIA agent (Brosnan) who is brought back for one more mission and finds himself pitted against his former pupil. It has played mostly to older males, and is performing slightly behind the pace of comparable Labor Day films like The American, The Debt and Lawless, each of which had bigger openings and ended with at least $30m in total domestic gross.
6. As Above/So Below
- Weekend Gross=$3.7 million
- Total Gross to Date=$15.5 million
- Budget=$5 million
Foreign: $1.6m this weekend for a new international/worldwide split of $4.7m/$20.2m
The second weekend of a horror movie is usually when you see drops anywhere between 60-80% [translation: very bad]. So, how did As Above/So Below fare? Actually, it only dropped 57% [translation: not bad]. However, one shouldn’t really devote too much time to looking at percentage drops alone. The most recent horror movie to hit theaters, Deliver Us from Evil, posted a more impressive 51% hold in its second weekend before plumetting at least 65% in each successive weekend, finishing with a domestic gross ($30.1m) basically identical to its production budget ($30m). Luckily, As Above/So Below didn’t cost nearly as much to make, and has now tripled its production budget. It also seems set to end up making just as much if not more than the most recent low-budget Labor Day horror movies, Apollo 18 and Shark Night 3D, both of which ended with domestic totals just south of $19m.
7. When the Game Stands Tall
- Weekend Gross=$3.7 million
- Total Gross to Date=$23.4 million
- Budget=$15 million
Foreign: No international box office yet
When The Game Stands Tall is an inspirational football movie dramatizing the real life story of the 151-game 1992–2003 winning streak by De La Salle High School of Concord, California. It comes from Sony’s faith-based label Affirm, and is thus far performing roughly on par with the most recent football movie to hit theaters (Kevin Costner’s Draft Day, $24.1m 17-day total).
8. The Giver
- Weekend Gross=$3.5 million
- Total Gross to Date=$37.8 million
- Budget=$25 million
Foreign: A new international/worldwide split of $5.6m/$43.4m
The opening round for this movie was North America, and it’s lost that battle. The next round will be overseas with openings in Brazil, Italy, UK, Germany, and France scheduled through the end of October.
9. The Hundred-Foot Journey
- Weekend Gross=$3.2 million
- Total Gross to Date=$45.6 million
- Budget=$22 million
Foreign: No international box office yet
Movies that skew older tend to have longer tails because old people can’t be bothered to rush out and see something in its first 3 days, dang nabbit. This has allowed Hundred-Foot Journey to post a 4.1 opening weekend/total gross multiplier, enough to have now doubled its budget.
10. Lucy (Back in Top 10 After Finishing at #11 Two Weekends in a Row)
- Weekend Gross=$1.95 million
- Total Gross to Date=$121.2 million
- Budget=$40 million
Foreign: $25.5m this weekend for a new international/worldwide split of $192.2m/$313.4m
With its currently booming international biz, Lucy has now made nearly 8 times its production budget in worldwide gross, an insane level of profitability when you remember that the break even point for most movies is the moment they double their budget at the worldwide box office. Lucy is now the highest grossing film, regardless of inflation, of Luc Besson’s directorial career, beating The Fifth Element both domestically ($121m vs. Fifth Element‘s $63m pre-inflation/$118m post-inflation) and worldwide ($313m vs. Fifth Element‘s 263.9m).
What Fell Out of the Top 10?:
Expendables 3 (#10 to #12). Expendables 3 exits the top 10 with just $36.7m domestic/$107.8m worldwide against a production budget around $90m and almost as much thought to have been spent on marketing. When looking at just the domestic side of things, this is now a franchise which has gone from $103m for its first movie to $85m for its second and now probably no more than $40m for its third. That franchise fatigue? She’s a real bitch. So’s piracy, though.
What’s Up Next?:
Surely, things will pick up a little bit with two new movies opening wide, Dolphin Tale 2 and No Good Deed, right? The first Dolphin Tale cost $37m to make, and grossed a decent $72.2m domestic/$95.4m worldwide. No Good Deed is a psychological thriller starring Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson, and it doesn’t seem to have much in the way of buzz at the moment.
Source: BoxOfficeMojo.com
