The Maze Runner did enough this weekend to earn a sequel, that’s for sure. The sequel (The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials) was already in preproduction and now has a release date of September 18th, 2015. First of all, fans liked the movie, giving it an A- cinemascore. Second, it beat almost everyones predictions. I had it at 25M, and even the boldest predictor only went to 30M. It made a bit more than that. At one point, people were even saying as low as 22M for the weekend. It also trounced A Walk Among The Tombstones, the Liam Neeson movie which only earned a B- cinemascore. Tombstone, rumored to have a budget of 28M, won’t make much more than that domestically. This Is Where I Leave You, the third new wide release, earned a B+ cinemascore, and did about what it was expected to do this weekend.
Tusk wasn’t released in enough screens to get a cinemascore, but a 1,472 PSA was lower than Guardians Of The Galaxy. If you can’t beat an 8 week old film on per screen average, that says something about audience demand for your film. No Good Deed dropped 57% in week 2, and Dolphin Tale 2 dropped 43%. The smallest drop in the top 10 was Guardians at 36%, but Lets Be Cops was close at 38%. The opening for The Maze Runner was enough to get it the 6th highest opening in September ever, so that’s worth talking about.
In limited release, The Skeleton Twins continues to perform well with a 9K average. Kevin Kline’s My Old Lady expanded and had a nice 2K average, as did Love Is Strange. The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby is already fading fast, with a per screen of 1,250. With strong reviews for Jessica Chastain’s performance, this film will likely be forgotten about come awards time.
New limited releases saw mixed results. The Guest averaged 4K, Zero Theorem averaged 1K, Tracks averaged 5K, and Simon Pegg’s Hector and the Search For Happiness got 11K. Tracks has an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a little bit of awards buzz, but with low numbers like that on opening weekend, it’ll be forgotten about like Rigby come awards time.
Next weekend, The Equalizer and The Boxtrolls go wide, and both have positive RT scores right now. In limited release, Viggo Mortensen’s The Two Faces Of January opens, and the biopic Jimi: All Is By My Side opens as well. Hoping to make a bigger impact is the british comedy Pride, which has been doing well with word of mouth, and an exciting 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
1) The Maze Runner- 32.5M Weekend, 32.5M Total
2) A Walk Among The Tombstones- 13.1M Weekend, 13.1M Total
3) This Is Where I Leave You- 11.8M Weekend, 11.8M Total
4) No Good Deed- 10.2M Weekend, 40.1M Total
5) Dolphin Tale 2- 9M Weekend, 27M Total
6) Guardians Of The Galaxy- 5.1M Weekend, 313.6M Total
7) Lets Be Cops- 2.6M Weekend, 77.1M Total
8) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- 2.6M Weekend, 185M Total
9) The Drop- 2.0M Weekend, 7.6M Total
10) If I Stay- 1.8M Weekend, 47.6M Total
11) The Hundred Foot Journey- 1.1M Weekend, 51.4M Total
??) Tusk- 0.8M Weekend, 0.8M Total
??) My Old Lady- 0.4M Weekend, 0.6M Total
??) The Skeleton Twins- 0.4M Weekend, 0.9M Total
??) Boyhood- 0.4M Weekend, 22.5M Total
??) Love Is Strange- 0.2M Weekend, 1.5M Total
??) The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby- 0.1M Weekend, 0.2M Total
??) The Guest- 82K Weekend, 111K Total
??) The Zero Theorem- 82K Weekend, 82K Total
??) Hector and the Search For Happiness- 46K Weekend, 46K Total
??) Tracks- 21K Weekend, 21K Total
