If it’s not obvious by now, the film industry and particularly the box office, is starting to mirror the North American economy: All aspects of its middle class are shrinking into non-existence. This goes for both the type of films being made — mid-sized-budget films which have diminished since 2008’s global economic crash — and the wealth inequality and disparity. 2015, on paper, looks like a banner year at the box-office, with $11.1 billion worth of receipts in North America alone by year’s end. That’s up 5.9% from 2014 and will surely rise as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” continues to outperform all expectations. But again, the distribution of wealth and budgets are slanted to the 1% of big blockbusters and it was either feast or famine for most films with little middle.
With the rise of “peak TV” — an estimated over-400 number of narrative TV shows not including reality TV, news or sports are available to choose from these days — and myriad streaming outlets, the modern consumer has become ultra-savvy and inundated with choices. So when the audience does come out to the movies, they come out in full force: See “Jurassic World,” “Furious 7” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” But when audiences feel indifferent to a movie, it can be a massive flop.
Thus, the binary nature of the economy is reflected in our cinema, and the hit-or-miss North American box office is dwindling, which creates an over-reliance on the international one. Movies are making massive amounts of money — four movies from 2015 are now in the top 10 for highest-grossing movies of all time (“Minions,” also from 2015, is #11) — or almost no money at all, and it’s become increasingly rare to find a modest-sized hit. And take out the five-billion-dollar-grossing films of 2015 and you have a less healthy box-office year — those five picture make up for approximately 21.8% of the $11.1 billion dollar North American box-office (and 19.1% from the $38 billion dollar global box office) against an estimated 668 movies in release.
Click here for our complete coverage of the Best of 2015
The Box-Office Slow Burn Is Evaporating
The slow burn is dying too. In December 2009, “Avatar” opened to $77 million, not even the highest grossing December release ever. But its hold was amazing and like a juggernaut, it slowly tallied up a massive $2.7 billion worldwide — currently the record holder for the highest grossing film of all time. Just six years later, films like “Jurassic World” and “Furious 7” are burning through 60% of their total haul within the first two weeks of release and then dropping off sharply (“Jurassic World” made a whopping 68.3% of its $652.2 million domestic gross in its first two weeks; “Furious 7” did 75.1%). In its fifth week of release, “Avatar” had earned $493 million. In 2015, “Jurassic World” cracked $500 million in its third week of release. The difference? The “Avatar” slow-burn meant the film played for 35 weeks (it’s also the current domestic all-time record holder) and “Jurassic World” bowed out after 23 weeks. Granted, 23 weeks is a terrific number, but it speaks to the fact that films just can’t stick around in theaters for as long as they used to just a few years ago perhaps because our binge-consumption culture has accelerated so quickly towards the shiny and new.
As you’ll see below, there’s always an exception to every rule with the fickle box office. And as we dive more deeply into breaking down how the studios did, we do so bearing in mind that as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” continues to grow at the box office, it will probably get close to or surpass the #1 grossing film of all time, and that will tilt overall 2015 stats and Disney’s overall year.
The Hits, Triumphs & Successes
Despite being the only studio without a major superhero franchise, Universal had a tremendous year a the box-office in 2015. And the current top two worldwide grossing films of the year — “Jurassic World” and “Furious 7” are theirs (yes, ‘Force Awakens’ will have something to say about this soon). In fact, three of the five highest grossing films of the year are Universal movies, including “Minions,” so that means three movies alone that accounted for $4.3 billion globally. Uni also had a huge surprise hit in “Straight Outta Compton” which made $200 million worldwide on a small $28 million budget, “Pitch Perfect 2” came close to $300 million globally, and "Fifty Shades of Grey" somehow made an astounding $570.5 million around the planet. Domestically, the studio had the highest domestic market share of any competitor with 22.3%, and raked in over $6.5 billion worldwide so they were the most successful studio of the year financially.
Not far behind however was the corporate hegemony of Disney, with a 17.3% domestic market share and three films within the worldwide top 10. Their Marvel wing helped bring in nearly $2 billion dollars with just two films — $1.923 combined with “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” and “Ant-Man” — and Pixar gave Disney an additional $851.6 million (for “Inside Out” and “The Good Dinosaur”). Disney films accounted for about $5.045 billion worldwide. And yes, if ‘Force Awakens’ hits $2 billion, Disney’s going to top all studios.
20th Century Fox had a pretty good year thanks to “The Martian” ($593.9 million) and the surprise hit of “Kingsman: The Secret Service” ($414.4 million), with their year bringing in $3,050.2 billion. Sony trailed Fox with a $2,078.6 billion total boosted by “Spectre” ($850.1 million) and the surprisingly strong “Hotel Transylvania 2” ($456.0 million). And bringing up the main studio rear was Warner Bros. ($1.8 billion), Paramount ($1.5 billion) and Lionsgate ($973.6 million).
Welcome to the Flophouse: All The Bombs And Films That No One Actually Wanted To See
Pretty much every studio had at least one major kick to the teeth, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Warner Bros. first. Usually one of the top three major studios, WB’s 2015 was riddled with disasters. There was the expensive “Jupiter Ascending” by the Wachowskis that failed to gross even $50 million domestically, starting off their year on wobbly legs (tellingly, it was a 2014 film pushed into the next quarter because they knew it would tank in the summer). The irony is that “Jupiter Ascending” is the third-highest-grossing WB film worldwide this year, but at a reported cost of $176 million (not counting promotion and marketing, which is, say, another $60 million), its mild international success couldn’t help the ambitious sci-fi picture find a profit margin.
Another risky, even worse debacle was WB’s “Pan.” Originally set for summer 2015, it was also portentously moved to October only a few weeks before its release. Grossing a mediocre $15.3 million in its opening weekend from a wide 3,515 theater release, “Pan” would only debut at #3 and it dropped a massive -61.7% in its second week. At a cost of $150 million (not counting P&A), “Pan” was a tremendous loser and write-down for WB — the film couldn’t even surpass $35 million in the U.S. So much for an origin prequel that was to lay the foundation for a new trilogy.
And the flops kept coming. “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” was meant to launch a new series and it certainly underperformed — just $45 million domestically against its $75 million price tag and an international tally that probably just barely covered its marketing costs. And this past December had WB bombs, too: “Point Break” tanked at the box-office last weekend (it too was supposed to lead a new franchise) and the expensive Ron Howard sea spectacle “In the Heart of the Sea” was pretty much dead on arrival. And even some of their smaller pictures were major losers: The DJ drama “We Are Your Friends” and the Sandra Bullock vehicle “Our Brand Is Crisis” opened to phenomenally low numbers despite being on more than 3,000 screens. ‘Crisis’ ended up being the worst opening of Bullock’s career and the would-be Oscar contender couldn’t gross more than $7 million at home (against a $28 million cost). The Zac Efron-starring ‘Friends’ was met with massive indifference; the movie had the fifth-worst per-screen average of 2015 and was pulled after four weeks of release. The studio’s biggest hit was “San Andreas” ($473.8 million worldwide), and that’s technically from their New Line wing.
2016 will be a critical year for WB, and there’s already trouble on the horizon. Another would-be summer franchise, Guy Ritchie’s “Knights Of The Roundtable: King Arthur,” has been pushed to that “Jupiter Ascending” February slot in 2017 (ruh-roh). And “Tarzan” is already in trouble from a marketing and press standpoint and that’s likely not going to change. WB’s 2016 rests on the doubling down it’s made on its super-hero slate: “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad.” The former likely needs to make $1 billion to be considered a success — its cost is rumored to be astronomical, plus the expectations alone demand a huge figure — but if critics tear it apart, it could easily fall short à la what happened with “Spectre” (about $180 million shy of that mark).
Now Universal had a banner year, but without their three big hits, it could have been a very different story. Michael Mann’s costly “Blackhat” was an absolute nose-diver grossing all of $19 million worldwide from a $70 million budget. "Jem and the Holograms" also took it on the chin in August with the worst per-screen average of any wide-release studio film this year. The film grossed just $2.2 million worldwide, a dreadful number for a major studio 3000-plus-screen release, and its second week drop (-71.8%) was the fourth-highest tumble of 2015. To add insult to injury, after that horrible week two, Universal decided to pull the movie from theaters after just 15 days of release. Delayed three times, “Seventh Son” was also a huge Uni disaster, at least at home. Made for $95 million — though reshoots, delays and retooling probably make that a conservative estimate — “Seventh Son” grossed a wretched $17 million at home. Mind you, it did $96 million in international box office, which further illustrates Hollywood’s over-reliance and dependence abroad.
“Crimson Peak” was yet another costly dud for the studio. Made for $55 million (though reportedly much higher), audiences didn’t take to Guillermo Del Toro’s lavish Gothic horror romance picture and the movie burned out domestically after only six weeks in theaters with $31 million. The movie inched its way to nearly $75 million worldwide, but given promotion and advertising costs, there’s no way this movie turned a buck in theaters. Producers Legendary Pictures apparently already have a fractious relationship with Universal and in signs of trouble have taken their “King Kong” movie back to their old home at Warner Bros.
And audiences also shrugged at Uni’s Angelina Jolie’s vanity project “By The Sea” starring her husband Brad Pitt (only grossing a shocking $538,460 domestically and pulled after 4 weeks). Perhaps no film in 2015 illustrated just how much “A-list stars” may not matter if modern-day audiences have more enticing options.
20th Century Fox had the dubious distinction of claiming the loudest bomb of the year media-wise, and a super-hero film at that. “Fantastic Four” proved even a Marvel property could be an utter calamity if audiences, fans and critics turned against it. Reports of a troubled production leaked early in the year and the film never recovered from that negative narrative — it certainly didn’t help that the director of the film basically confirmed all those reports with one tweet. Made for a reported $120 million (probably one of the most dubious studio figures of the year given all the reshoots), “Fantastic Four” began poorly and tapped out at $56 million at home. The picture did go on to earn $167 worldwide, but failed to last even more than 11 weekends in theaters at home. An expensive and noisy flop, “Fantastic Four” did the unthinkable: derail a studio’s carefully laid franchise plan for the future. Fox were planning a sequel and laying the groundwork for a possible crossover with their vaunted “X-Men” series. Now that sequel date has been pulled and the studio has to totally rethink their plan, and maybe even start all over again.
"Victor Frankenstein" was another major lemon for Fox. After five weekends, the movie has run out of gas domestically with a pitiful $5.7 million domestic total. Lionsgate had plenty of flops too including Johnny Depp‘s "Mortdecai" ($7 million domestic total), "American Ultra" ($14 million domestic) and the indie "Freeheld."
Other box-office fiascos included Disney’s “Tomorrowland” (a $93.4 million domestic gross against a $190 million budget, some of which was salvaged internationally), Lionsgate’s “The Last Witch Hunter” (only $27 million domestically), Sony’s “Chappie” (a paltry domestic total of $31.5 million), “Aloha” (a worldwide total of only $26.3 million), and “The Walk” ($43.2 million worldwide), plus the head scratcher that was Uni’s “Steve Jobs,” which holds the honor of best indie per screen average of 2015, but failed dismally in wide release (it’s currently stalled at $17.7 million). And is it any wonder that Relativity went bankrupt this year? The studio was only able to release three films this year and the worldwide box-office take on them was $112.2 million combined.
The Box Office Is No Longer About Stars
There’s an interesting disconnect with the box office and Hollywood. As “By The Sea” demonstrated, even a Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie — two of the supposedly biggest stars in the world — can be a huge flop if audiences aren’t engaged. And while that math is clear as day on the wall, Hollywood still invests in those considered “bankable stars” even though that concept is quickly becoming outdated. Will Smith’s “Concussion” failed to connect with audiences this Christmas and was the lowest-grossing opening of his career. Then again, it’s an understated character drama that was never going to be a huge hit in this climate.
Even Johnny Depp had a bad year despite solid reviews and solid box-office for his “comeback” film, “Black Mass” (which still could earn him a Oscar nomination). Though let’s not forget the black eye that was "Mortdecai" (a horrid $7 million total domestically and massive loser for Lionsgate). Forbes listed the actor as the most overpaid star in Hollywood, cross-referencing his pay days against his box-office, and that’s certainly not good for the Depp brand.
Everyone loves Bill Murray, right? Not if the subject matter doesn’t appeal, which Murray found out with the Open Road turkey, “Rock The Kasbah.” Made for $15 million, the Middle Eastern-set rock dramedy tanked in week one with $1.4 million despite being on over 2,000 screens. After five weeks it was pulled and it barely played to even a dozen foreign territories.
And yet, you’ll see all these stars lead passion projects and vanity plays in the future. Look at Netflix’s investment in a Brad Pitt‘s “War Machine” for an outrageous $60 million price tag, or their multi-picture deal with Adam Sandler. Will Smith may have gotten knocked out at the box office this past weekend with “Concussion,” but he’s still going to have the cream of the crop of roles if he wants them because stars can still deliver and Hollywood seems to love a good gamble. Why? Because as usual, it’s often either hit-or-miss and studios almost always take that chance despite claims they play conservatively (they do, but they pull a lot of blunders too). And look at STX’s “Secret in their Eyes,” which “flopped” on opening weekend with $6 million — but thanks to Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman, it’s slowly but surely (and quietly) made $20 million so far.
And how do you explain The Weinstein Company‘s “Macbeth”? Critically acclaimed, the drama starring Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender earned a dim total of $806,000 so far (and it hasn’t hit VOD yet). Evidently audiences don’t want to sit through a cold, damp and gloomy Shakespeare adaptation that needs subtitles (but doesn’t actually use them in the film). Globally, though, it’s made a much healthier $9.3 million.
Stars Outside The Brand Don’t Track And Sought-After Actors That Aren’t Stars Yet
Hollywood is always trying to invest in new stars. It’s admirable. But as “Blackhat” and “In The Heart Of The Sea” showed, Chris Hemsworth just isn’t very viable outside of “Thor” and “The Avengers.” And this could be said for nearly every “Avenger” outside of Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson. The same goes for Superman. Henry Cavill may be the “Man Of Steel,” but he and “The Lone Ranger” Armie Hammer — another actor Hollywood is hot to make into a star — couldn’t convince audiences to show up for “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” Ditto Sandra Bullock and the aforementioned “Our Brand Is Crisis.” "Mad Max: Fury Road" was WB’s second-highest grossing movie of the year globally ($375 million), but you won’t find a movie built on Tom Hardy that’s been a major hit. Ditto for Michael Fassbender, which is also partly why "Steve Jobs" didn’t track wide. In 2015, it’s not good enough to have a “star” leading your film. You either need them to lead a franchise or a brand or just have a really fucking good movie on your hands with huge buzz and great word of mouth.
Spectacle Dramas Aren’t Always Enough
There’s a new kind of sub-genre emerging in Tinseltown. Aware that spectacle is driving the box-office, Hollywood is trying to find dramas that they can tell on an epic scale and big canvas. It’s a kind of savvy idea for producers and filmmakers that want to tell human stories but still stay in the theatrical game. But two of 2015’s biggest efforts in that field — “The Walk” and “In The Heart of The Sea” — both failed. Robert Zemeckis’ movie was completely of that mold — a drama about a man overcoming myriad obstacles and self-doubt to pull off one of the greatest acts of art of the century that capped off with one of the most magnificent visual spectacles of 2015. But audiences were mostly apathetic to “The Walk.” Made for a modest $35 million, the movie could only drum up $10 million domestically. And a similar fate met the Ron Howard film, which will be lucky if it passes the $35 million mark at home.
Streaming Platforms Are Changing The Game
What we watch and how we watch it is changing. Studios spilt profits with theater chains about 50/50, give or take, and when they’re spending up to $60 million or more to advertise big blockbusters, the ratio of profit gets slimmer and the risk of failure is higher. And so while studios continue this gamble regardless, and indie movies become micro-budgeted indies made for nothing, the middle-sized adult drama is starting to find a home on streaming platforms (if not just converted into longform TV dramas).
While most studios aren’t going to touch a mid-sized $15 million drama if studio math says it’s not going to be a huge hit (you’ve got to spend another $30 million to promote it and suddenly $45 million seems out of reach and not worth it), streaming platforms that don’t have to worry about splitting costs with a theater are more than happy to fill that gap. Companies with a lot of money to throw around like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and similar services are getting into that game in a big way. Netflix released “Beasts Of No Nation” this year and considering the Globe and SAG nominations, it’s probably already a success in the streaming service’s mind. But we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
Netflix has gone into the Adam Sandler business — he signed a four-picture deal with the studio—and made a huge deal for a Brad Pitt wartime satire. It’s an expensive movie that no studio would touch, but Netflix and their wholly different success metric — increasing and keeping subscribers, not splitting box-office receipts — can afford the risk. Amazon is taking a similar route, releasing Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq” and putting out movies and shows by Woody Allen, Roman Coppola, Terry Gilliam and Jim Jarmusch, to name a few in the near future. Hulu is lagging behind somewhat, but they’re putting in the legwork too, releasing new shows by Jason Reitman (which earned a Golden Globe nomination) and Neil LaBute. To stress the point a bit further, the adult drama has basically migrated to television, but that’s another feature onto itself.
Not All Brands Are Always Untouchable
The conventional wisdom in Hollywood is chasing IPs, brands, franchises that audiences know, but as “Terminator Genisys” proved, a once-beloved franchise isn’t always enough — especially when its brand equity has been damaged over the years. The fifth film in the the ‘Terminator’ series, Paramount had hoped to reboot the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring sci-fi actioner, but the reaction was decidedly mixed. Failing to earn even $90 million in the U.S., the expensive do-over (a reported $155 million, which seems super-low) didn’t connect with domestic audiences, and the movie started out sluggishly. International was another story, and that overseas boon led to ‘Genisys’ taking in $440 million worldwide — that makes it the 16th-highest-grossing film of 2015 globally. But the picture was still seen as a reluctant success at best, and Paramount is apparently going to rethink the series before they move forward.
Brand Fatigue At Home
While blockbusters are still raking in money, we’re seeing a lot of dips for sequels that should ideally be making more money than their predecessor (#SuperHeroFatigueIsAMyth is a false hashtag, sorry). “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was down -26.3% from the original film domestically. The final ‘Hunger Games’ film still has to finish its run, but is currently the lowest-grossing film of the series both domestically (down 21.6%) and internationally. YA franchises that originally popped seemed to be struggling too. Both the “Divergent” and “The Maze Runner” series seem to have peaked early with audiences at home, though overseas, the films seem to be just catching on. “Spectre” was down from "Skyfall" (-23.3%), ‘Rogue Nation’ couldn’t pace with ‘Ghost Protocol’ (-1.7%), and “Taken 3” was down a major -38.6% from the first hit at home. Of course, all these figures don’t necessarily apply overseas where the drops aren’t as high and in some cases going up (though ‘Age Of Ultron’ was down internationally -5.5% from the original).
Critics Do Matter/Indie Flops/Audiences Prefer VOD
With peak TV and myriad streaming options, audiences need a convincing reason or excuse even to leave their house and go see a movie. Some movies, like a Michael Bay’s “Transformers” movie or Adam Sandler’s comedy, will seemingly always remain critic-proof, but more and more, you’re seeing a direct correlation with bad or middling reviews and weak box office. Lionsgate’s “Freeheld” was all set to be the studio’s Oscar-bait for 2015 and a vehicle that tapped into the “LoveWins” gay rights movement of the year. But critics savaged “Freeheld” and audiences who would rather stay home listened — the movie tanked with a dismal $573,000 as its domestic total.
Conversely, VOD really effected box-office grosses despite critical plaudits. A24’s “Slow West” was critically acclaimed and was a big hit at Sundance a few months earlier, but the film was released early on DirectTV and was made available on most regular VOD outlets upon its release, so audiences seemingly said to themselves, “I’ll catch this at home” and thus the Western made a godawful $229,000 theatrically. Even the combination of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper couldn’t help “Serena.” Critics roasted it, plus it was day and date with VOD, so audiences stayed home (a $176,000 theatrical total). Focus Features’ “Maps To The Stars” won prizes at Cannes and was generally well-received, but theatrically it was an absolute non-starter ($351,000). Many well reviewed movies that were available on VOD around or at the same time as the theatrical window did pathetic in-theaters business: "Experimenter" ($155,000), "The Tribe" ($150,000), "Cop Car" ($134,000), "Mississippi Grind" ($130,000), "Manglehorn" ($132,000), “Son of Saul” ($97,000), “Beasts of No Nation” ($90,000), “I Smile Back” ($58,000), “The Duke of Burgundy” ($56,000), and Ryan Gosling’s “Lost River” ($45,000). These are ghastly numbers, but all these movies could have killed on VOD and you’d never know it. Studios rarely release VOD figures and likely never will lest they open themselves up to the same box-office scrutiny that has plagued so many studios and affected the narratives they’d rather control.
Oscar Bait Plays It Safe Theatrically
Audiences in recent years have been turning up their nose at Oscar-bait films and are tired of adult dramas that aren’t quite sexy enough to leave the house for. The response by studios, perhaps wisely, is to let these film simmer in minimal release, perhaps biding their time until the Oscar nominations (while also not making the same “Steve Jobs” mistake of going wide too early). Some of these plans work, some don’t.
Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett in “Truth” would have been prime Oscar bait years ago and probably performed well, but the drama has struggled with audiences (just $2.5 million so far, and it’s been on 1,122 screens) and the muted critical response didn’t help. Pictures like women’s-rights film “Suffragette” hasn’t really taken off at the box office yet — it’s pushed up to $4.6 million so far at home — but Focus hasn’t raised the theater count higher than 512 screens so far, thus it has space to grow should it connect with the Academy. “Room” is another Oscar drama playing that same game. It has slowly but surely made $4.7 million, and hasn’t been on more than 198 screens. Weinstein’s are playing conservative with “Carol” so far, too ($2.8 million so far from no more than 180 screens). The big stunner in this regards is Open Road’s “Spotlight.” The movie hasn’t been in more than 897 theaters and currently is on only 487 screens, but has quietly grossed a whopping $24 million domestically.
While we’re days away from the end of 2015, the year’s box office won’t end for several months. “The Revenant,” “The Hateful Eight,” and “The Big Short” are just getting started and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is on pace to outgross the $2.7 billion that “Avatar” made worldwide. Oscar nominations will surely give a big boost to a lot of pictures too. 2015 ain’t over yet, but this is a snapshot of how things stand.
Statistics
Highest-Grossing Opening of 2015
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”— $247.9 million
Highest Per-Screen Average Opening Of 2015
“Steve Jobs” — $521,522 from 4 screens for a $130,381 per screen average
Runner-Up: “The Revenant” — $118,640 PSA
Lowest Wide-Release Per-Screen Average Opening of 2015
“The D Train” — $447,661 from 1,009 screens for a $444.00 per screen average
Runner-Up: “Jem and the Holograms” — $1.3 million from 2,413 screens for a $570.00 per screen average.
Lowest Indie Per-Screen Average Opening of 2015 (under 1,000 screens)
“The Diary of a Teenage Girl” — $393,153 from 795 screens for a $495.00 per screen average.
Highest-Grossing 2015 Sundance Film To Date:
“Brooklyn” — $18.6 million
Runner-Up: “Dope” — $17.5 million
Film In The Most Amount Of North American Theaters
“Minions” — 4,301
Lowest-Grossing Wide Release In 2015 (North America Only)
“The D – Train” — IFC Films — $669,688 — 1,009 theaters
Lowest-Grossing Studio-Film Wide Release In 2015 (North America Only)
“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” — Paramount — $3.7 million —1,509 theaters
Lowest-Grossing Release of 2015 (According to Box Office Mojo’s list of 668 films released this year)
"Confession of a Child of the Century" — Cohen Media — $74.00
Lowest Grossing Release of 2015 That’s On Our Worst Of The Year List
"United Passions" — Screen Media — $607.00
Highest-Grossing Domestic Weekend of 2015
Dec. 18-20 — $313,279,350 — 80 movies in theaters
Lowest-Grossing Domestic Weekend of 2015
Oct. 30-Nov. 1 — $62,682,461 — 106 movies in theaters
Sharpest Second-Weekend Drop Of 2015
“Rock The Kasbah” which fell -75.9%.
Runner-Up: “Fifty Shades of Grey,” -73.9%
Movie with the most box-office #1s
3-way tie for “Furious 7,” “The Martian” and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2,” which were all number 1 four weekends (though the "The Martian" wasn’t consecutive).
Worldwide box-office Top 10 to date:
1. Jurassic World — Universal — $1,669.0 ($652.3 domestic)
2. Furious 7 — Universal — $1,515.0 ($353.0 domestic)
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron — Disney — $1,405.0 ($459.0 domestic)
4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens — Disney — $1,161.1 ($$571.4 domestic)
5. Minions — Universal — $1,157.3 ($336.0 domestic)
6. Inside Out — Disney/Pixar — $851.6 ($356.5 domestic)
7. Spectre — Sony — $850.4 ($196.3 domestic)
8. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation — Paramount— $682.3 ($195.0 domestic)
9. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 — Lionsgate — $618.1 ($264.5 domestic)
10. The Martian — 20th Century Fox — $594.0 ($224.9 million)