Well, it looks like we have our second summer repeat of the #1 position of this year. Before now, Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” was the only film of 2014 to stay at the #1 box office position for two weeks in a row. But now Matt Reeves’ “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” has achieved the same distinction. Falling only 50% (a great hold for a tentpole), the film was still able to gross $36 million in its second week of release to retain the box-office top spot. The movie is now at $138 million domestically, and reaching $200 million at home seems like a foregone conclusion. The movie’s global total currently stands at $241.8 million and pundits are already hypothesizing that the film will hit around over $600 million worldwide, which is a strong sign for the life of this franchise. But the box-office is still ailing domestically overall, down some 45% from 2013.
The week was full of newcomers in “The Purge: Anarchy,” “Sex Tape” and “Planes: Fire & Rescue,” but none of them did well enough to unseat ‘Apes.’ But Universal’s horror thriller sequel ‘Purge: Anarchy’ did what it should have, grossing $28.4 million in its opening weekend. A massive success? No, but a very good one for the studios cost and expectations (and a rotten RT score). Disney‘s "Planes: Fire & Rescue," another sequel to "Planes," which itself was a "Cars" spin-off" did decently too with $18 million or so scoring it the third position.
When audiences really want to see a movie, like a new “Transformers” film, they’ll go, and these types of films are “critic proof.” But when unsure, audiences tend to listen. This is the case with the Cameron Diaz-starring comedy “Sex Tape.” Co-starring Jason Segel, the movie received a rather low 20% Rotten Tomatoes score, and more reviews had the tone of a rather overwhelming “meh,” so audiences generally stayed away. The movie took in a sub-par $15 million for its opening, which means it’ll likely fade from the top 10 rather fast and might even get chalked up as a loss for Sony. "Sex Tape" was made by the same team responsible for 2011’s hit "Bad Teacher," but it won’t be a big R-Rated comedy success like its predecessor.
‘Transformers 4′ stayed within the top 5 and took in another 10 million this weekend – its domestic total now stands at $227.1 million. It should be able to hit $250-ish million, which would make it one of the highest grossing releases of 2014 in the U.S. (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” holds the domestic #1 title for 2014 so far with $258 million). But even hitting $275 million for ‘Transformers 4’ would make it the lowest grossing film in the series. No film in the ‘Transformers’ franchise has grossed less than $315 million in North America, and so the weak 2014 domestic box-office trend at home continues. And while this means Americans are tiring of the series, international audiences just can’t get enough. The fourth installment in the series is the highest grossing movie of the year worldwide, and it’s approaching the $900 million mark. ‘Age Of Extinction’ has grossed $878 million worldwide in four weekends, so you can be sure it’ll be surpassing the $1 billion mark by next week. The blockbuster has made an insane $285.7 million in China so far, and at this rate, with territories like Japan still to open, ‘Age Of Extinction’ could beat “The Avengers” for the #4 slot on the all-time highest grossing international list.
In its third week in release, Melissa McCarthy’s "Tammy" fell another 44%, but the movie grossed $71 million so far, and $100 million isn’t out of the question. Not so much a bomb, just a slow-starter out of the gate, though yes, will be one of the lower-grossing McCarthy comedies of late.
Elsewhere, "22 Jump Street" has made $180 million, a terrific number for an R-Rated comedy. In fact, the number puts the comedy sequel in the top 15 for highest-grossing R-Rated movies ever domestically, and just outside the top 5 for highest grossing R-Rated comedies ever in North America. They might have blown up the franchise at the end, but the numbers will suggest to Sony (and maybe the filmmakers) that there should be a third. Angelina Jolie‘s finally shown her box-office might with "Maleficent." It’s within spitting distance of $700 million worldwide (about $3 million shy) and it’s the 2nd highest grossing movie of the year stateside with $228.3 million. It is now the highest grossing Angelina Jolie movie ever, having eclipsed the global cume of "Kung Fu Panda" and its sequel.
It’s outside the top 10 now, but "X-Men: Days of Future Past" has become the third highest grossing movie of 2014 domestically. That number will eventually be eclipsed by ‘Transformers 4,’ but it’s just $4 million shy of surpassing "X-Men: The Last Stand" to become the highest grossing X-film in the series (and it’s already achieved that mark globally). "How to Train Your Dragon 2" started slow, but keeps climbing. It’s now grossed $358 million worldwide and $160 million at home. But it’s still tracking lower than the original ($217 U.S., $494 worldwide).
In limited release, Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” expanded, playing in 34 theaters, and has now grossed $1.8 million in two weeks. For limited release comparison that’s higher than the entire theatrical run of “The Rover” and “Enemy,” to name a few comparably-sized indies (“Under The Skin” made $2.5 million in its run, which “Boyhood” should be able to surpass). Its per screen average was $35k. In only two theaters this weekend, Michel Gondry‘s "Mood Indigo” scored a $25k weekend for a 12.5k P.S.A. Performing not hot at all was Zach Braff’s kickstarter film, "Wish I Was Here." The poorly reviewed film only earned $495k in 68 venues – that’s a low $7,279 per-screen average. At that rate, he’ll need funding assistance for his next movie too. Fox Searchlight’s "I Origins" didn’t do much better grossing $28,719 from 4 theaters for a $7,180 P.S.A. In case you’re wondering, "Snowpiercer" has grossed $3.4 million already in limited release. It’s also done gangbusters on VOD and made $1.1 million in its first week (something that RADiUS-TWC considers a "game changing" success and one they look at about being worth $2.6 million in box-office revenue since they aren’t splitting heavy theater costs).
1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes— $36,000,000 ($170m)
2. The Purge: Anarchy —$28,369,000
3. Planes: Fire & Rescue — $18,000,000
4. Sex Tape — $15,000,000
5. Transformers: Age of Extinction —$10,000,000 ($227.1m)
6. Tammy — $7,605,000 ($71.1m)
7. 22 Jump Street —$4,700,000 ($180m)
8. How to Train Your Dragon 2 — $3,800,000 ($160.6m)
9. Maleficent — $3,302,000 ($228.3m)
10. Earth to Echo — $3,260,000 ($31.9m)