Weekend Wrap-Up: Dinobots Dominate Subdued Box Office
July 7, 2014
As expected, Transformers: Age of Extinction won the race to the top of the box office chart and did so with ease. However, that film, and practically every film in the top five, failed to live up to expectations. Tammy still took second place with ease, but it was the only other film to earn more than $10 million over the Independence Day long weekend. Overall, the box office pulled in $132 million over the weekend, which is 27% less than last weekend. Compared to the same weekend last year, the box office was 42% lower this year. Ouch. To put this into perspective, even if you take out Despicable Me 2 from last year's box office, 2014 would have still failed to match 2013's weekend numbers. Year-to-date, 2014 is now $130 million or 2.4% below 2013's pace at $5.35 billion to $5.48 billion. It is still too early to panic, but if things don't turn around soon, the panic button will be pushed.
Transformers: Age of Extinction remained in first place at the box office chart, but it fell more than most people were predicting. The movie plummeted 63% to $37.05 million over the weekend for a ten-day total of $175.40. This is the worst ten-day total in the franchise and now there's a chance it won't get past $250 million in total. Fortunately, it is performing better internationally, so the studio should still be happy.
Tammy earned second place with $21.58 million over the weekend for a total opening of $33.31 million. The reviews are really bad, but this opening is great. It only cost $20 million to make, so depending on how much the studio's take was, it might have covered that cost already. Regardless, it should finish with $60 million or more domestically, so it will only need about $40 million internationally to cover its combined budget and be completely in the black.
22 Jump Street was the only film to top Friday's predictions, and it only did so by a rounding error. However, due to weaker than expected new releases, this was enough for third place. It added $9.80 million over the weekend for a four-week total of $159.27 million. This is already enough to break even, so its international numbers are pure gravy.
Deliver Us From Evil opened in fourth place with $9.74 million over the weekend for a total opening of $15.25 million. The film wasn't super expensive costing just $30 million. Even with weak reviews, it should last long enough to get to $30 million domestically, so it won't take too much internationally and on the home market to break even.
Fifth place went to How to Train Your Dragon 2 with $8.96 million over the weekend for a total of $140.22 million after four weeks of release. It will break even, but this is much weaker than expected.
Earth to Echo couldn't take advantage of the holiday weekend landing in sixth place with $8.36 million giving it a total opening of $13.57 million. Its reviews were the best of the new releases this weekend, but still not strong enough to reach the overall positive level. With Planes: Fire and Rescue coming out within two weeks, it likely won't have great legs. On the other hand, it wasn't a very expensive movie to make, so that will help.
The final "new" release of the week was America: Imagine a World Without Her, which just missed the top ten with $2.74 million over the weekend and $4.02 million since going wide on Wednesday. If you add in its short limited release, it has pulled in $4.06 million. On the one hand, this does make it the highest grossing documentary of the year. On the other hand, its weekend number was less than half of what 2016: Obama's America earned during its first weekend of semi-wide release. Add in the pitiful reviews and the fact that there's no presidential election to boost buzz and this film won't life up to its predecessor. It will likely still make a profit, assuming the P&A budget wasn't too high, but I don't think we will be seeing many more films from Dinesh D'Souza.
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Earth to Echo, 22 Jump Street, Tammy, Deliver Us from Evil, America: Imagine a World Without Her, Transformers, Dinesh D'Souza