With the end of another weekend comes another batch of reports about how films-both new and old-fared at the box office. This week, at the domestic box office Pixar, Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, and Brad Pitt all did very well whereas Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum did not. What are our main takeaways as an audience?
Let’s start with the raw numbers:
Top 10 Estimates for the 6/28-6/30 Weekend Domestic Box Office (Gross/Budget reported in the millions)
# Title Weekend Gross Total Gross Prod. Budget Week # % Change
1 Monsters University $45.6 $170.4 - 2 -44.7%
2 The Heat $39.1 $39.1 $43 1 n/a
3 World War Z $29.7 $123.6 $190 2 -55.2%
4 White House Down $24.8 $24.8 $150 1 n/a
5 Man of Steel $20.7 $248.5 $225 3 -49.8%
6 This is the End $8.7 $74.6 $32 3 -34.5%
7 Now You See Me $5.6 $104.7 $75 5 -28.7%
8 Fast & Furious 6 $2.4 $233.3 $160 6 -50.3%
9 Star Trek Into Darkness $2.1 $220.5 $190 7 -33.7%
10 The Internship $1.4 $41.7 $58 4 -57.9%
Gross (Weekend, Total) and Production Budget reported here in the millions (e.g., $43=$43,000,000)
Source: Boxofficemojo.com
Monsters University – Great, But What Happens When Despicable Me 2 Opens?
In addition to its $45 million domestic haul, Monster University added $44.2 million in foreign gross for a combined worldwide gross of $299.7 million. Here are the main takeaways from the performance of Monsters University:
- The 45% drop-off from week one to week two is a little better than recent Pixar films Brave (49%) and Toy Story 3 (46%) and way better than Cars 2 (60%).
- Pixar recently announced their intention to re-focus on original titles as opposed to sequels, that Finding Nemo sequel notwithstanding, which is an admirable move considering the stellar performance of Monsters University at the moment.
- Despicable Me 2 is off to an amazing start after debuting early in 7 foreign markets for a combined gross of $41.5 million, slaying the competition in the UK this past weekend. Monsters University could be headed for a significant nosedive this upcoming week when Despicable Me 2 opens domestically.
Bullock/McCarthy Debut Strong, White House Down Bombs
The Heat‘s hot debut reminds us that women like to go to movies, too, but people in general may not have known White House Down was a different movie than the eerily similar Olympus Has Fallen from a couple of months ago. The Heat was only released domestically, but White House Down added $6.8 million in foreign gross from only a handful of markets for a combined worldwide total of $31.6 million.
Here are the main takeaways from the performance of the two new movies:
- After Kirstin Wiig declined to return for a Bridesmaids sequel, talk of a sequel centered around Melissa McCarthy’s character died when she refused to return without Wiig. Instead, McCarthy and Bridesmaids director Paul Feig did The Heat, a buddy cop movie in which the cops happen to be women. Sandra Bullock came on board to do her Miss Congeniality schtick. The result is the biggest opening of McCarthy, Feig, or Bullock’s career to this point, even after adjusting for inflation. You know that means, right? Even after adjustment, The Heat is off to a better start than Speed was in 1994.
- White House Down cost $150 million to make and approximately $150 to market. It has yet to really open wide worldwide giving those involved some hope it might make up its losses overseas. Plus, word of mouth seems to be okay in America. However, there’s no getting around at it – in its opening weekend in America this movie flat out tanked.
- Sony Pictures is in a bad position now that White House Down appears to be bombing a mere month after Sony’s After Earth also struggled at the box office. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this comes at a time when one of their shareholders is making a lot of news with his proposal that the entertainment division of Sony be spun off from the main Sony Corporation.
World War Z Continues to Exceed Expectations
In addition to $29 million at the domestic box office, WWZ made $70.1 million in 50 total foreign markets, giving it a combined foreign total of $135.5 and worldwide total of $258.8. It’s 55% drop-off from week one to week two domestically sounds bad, but is actually right on par with most summer movie blockbusters and far better than what Man of Steel experienced. All signs are encouraging for those who want them to get to the trilogy they had originally planned, but that final production budget of $190 million (plus the likely high but not officially reported marketing costs) means they probably need to continue performing well for a couple more weeks.
Man of Steel Stops the Bleeding, Killing It In Overseas Business
Last week, Man of Steel dropped a very bad 65% in its second weekend. Fortunately, it only dropped 50% in its third weekend, and is now the second-highest domestic grossing film of the year to this point behind Iron Man 3 (granted, at $248 million its a distant second to Iron Man 3‘s $406 million). In foreign markets, it added an additional $52.2 million bringing its combined worldwide total to $520 million, making it now easily the highest-grossing Superman film of all time (although Superman and Superman II still have it beat after adjusting for inflation).
This is the End and Now You See Me Continue to Do Well, The Internship Not So Much, Star Trek Into Darkness Update
Both This is the End and Now You See Me continue to perform above expectations despite each new week bringing new films with which to compete. If the axiom about needing to double your budget before you are into pure profit is true, then This is the End is officially in the black (profit and comedy wise) with a worldwide total gross of $77 million on a reported production budget of just $32 million. The same is true for Now You See Me, which has made $153 million worldwide on a reported production budget of $75 million. It’s not difficult to see why there has been talk of a This is the End sequel. That is, of course, unless you’ve actually seen the film and realize that plot-wise there is nowhere else to go, something co-writers/co-directors Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen have admitted in interviews.
Not faring as well is the Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson re-team-up The Internship, which is set to leave the top 10 domestically and currently has a $56.5 million worldwide gross on a reported $58 million budget. Owen Wilson needs a hit in the worst way.
Holding steady at #9 on the domestic Top 10 List for the second week in a row was Star Trek Into Darkness, which has now made $220 million domestically and $217 foreign for a worldwide gross of $438 million. This domestic total makes it the second all-time highest grossing film in the franchise behind 2009′s Star Trek. However, it starts to look really bad when you remember that Into Darkness cost $190 million to make (God knows how much to market), and it is well behind Star Trek‘s 2009 domestic total of $257 million. Plus, after you adjust for inflation Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home also made more than Into Darkness domestically.
However, Into Darkness has done better than any Star Trek film before it at the foreign box office. Nearly half of its worldwide gross (49%) is from foreign markets (comparatively, only 33% of 2009′s Star Trek worldwide box office came from outside America), and in unadjusted dollars the $438 million worldwide gross is the highest for any film in the franchise by a considerable margin. If a sequel happens, it will be because of how well the film performed overseas and not how well it didn’t perform domestically.
Oi, enough with the numbers. I’m done. Leave a comment if you want. Seriously, though, the early reports are indicating that Despicable Me 2 is going to be a HUGE hit this week. Huge. Who saw that coming?
