Ant-Man and Trainwreck take the top two positions
While the weekend box office might not have seemed as impressive as some of the past weeks of summer, it was all about Walt Disney Pictures and Universal Pictures who successfully managed to dominate all five positions in the top five with a combination of new and returning movies.
The big winner of the weekend was Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man (its 12th consecutive first place opening), starring Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena and more, which opened on Thursday night with previews amounting to $6.4 million of its $22.6 million opening day take. According to weekend estimates, it’s grossed $58 million in 3,856 theaters, or $15,000 per site, which puts it ahead of the 2008 opening of The Incredible Hulk (distributed by Universal), but below the $65 million openings for 2009’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. $6.1 million of the domestic total came from 361 IMAX screens and all top five grossing locations are IMAX engagements.
Internationally, Ant-Man earned roughly the same amount with $56.4 million in about 50% of the overseas territories, including France, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Mexico and the UK, with big markets like Germany, Italy, Korea, China and Japan still to come. Combined with the domestic earnings, the Peyton Reed-directed film has collected $114.4 million in its first week. It also received an “A” CinemaScore from audiences, which should mean it will have strong legs moving forward. Ant-Man cost about $130 million to produce.
Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s hit animated spin-off Minions took a substantial hit in its second weekend, dropping to second place with $50.2 million (down 56%) as it crossed the $200 million mark with $211.5 million grossed in just ten days. With that sort of second weekend drop, it’s going to be hard (but not impossible) for it to become the fourth movie of the summer to cross the $300 million mark, compared to one last summer. Internationally, Minions has reached $409.1 million for a worldwide total of $625.8 million.
Opening in third place, comedian Amy Schumer teamed up with director Judd Apatow for the raunchy $30-million budgeted romantic comedy Trainwreck (Universal), co-starring Bill Hader, Colin Quinn, John Cena, Lebron James, Tilda Swinton and Vanessa Bayer – probably one of the oddest list of names ever mentioned in the same sentence. The film took in an estimated $30.2 million for the weekend in 3,157 theaters, averaging $9,500 per location. That’s just ahead of the opening of Apatow’s last romantic comedy, Knocked Up, in 2007, which went on to gross nearly $150 million domestically. Apatow also produced the 2011 hit Bridesmaids, which opened with just $26 million and grossed $169 million total. Trainwreck‘s “A-” CinemaScore is a good indicator that word-of-mouth should also sustain this film over the rest of the summer. Trainwreck will begin its international rollout next week.
Pixar’s Inside Out and Universal’s blockbuster Jurassic World continued to play cat and mouse with their box office rankings, each of them hitting an impressive milestone as Inside Out came out on top while crossing the $300 million mark. Inside Out grossed an estimated $11.7 million domestically this weekend to take third place fourth place with $306 million grossed in North America. Jurassic World, on the other hand, has grossed over $600 million (the 4th movie to ever do that amount domestically) as it added another $11.4 million to take fifth place. With $611 million earned domestically, it’s well on its way to becoming the third-highest grossing movie domestically, passing Marvel’s The Avengers by summer’s end.
Inside Out added another $21.3 million overseas to bring its international total to $183.8 million in 61% of the market and a strong $490 million global gross so far. Jurassic World crossed the $900 million mark at the international box office and passed Marvel’s The Avengers‘ international total of $895.2 million to bemuse the sixth-highest grossing film of all time at the international box office. The international total for the film is $902.3 million and it will pass Fast & Furious 7 ($1.512 billion) today to come the fourth-highest grossing film of all-time worldwide today with $1.513 billion.
Sir Ian McKellen and Laura Linney starred in Bill Condon’s drama Mr. Holmes (Roadside Attractions), which opened in 363 theaters in select cities on Friday. The film earned an estimated $2.4 million.
For a second weekend in a row, a Bollywood film brought in enough business to make a play for the Top 10, in this case being Kabir Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Eros International), which opened in 256 theaters on Friday where it grossed $730,000 and is projected to do $2 million plus over the weekend.
Sony Pictures Classics released Woody Allen’s latest, the dramatic thriller Irrational Man, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone, into five theaters in New York and L.A. where it grossed $188,000, or $37,600 per theater. That’s considerably less than the $100,000 per theater averages of Allen’s most recent hits, Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine, both which went onto win Oscars, although Sony Pictures Classics still plans on expand it nationwide on August 7.
