Earthquakes and disaster films still can pull in an audience. And in a May that's been more hit-and-miss than expected, the effects-heavy flick did more than anyone anticipated. Warner Bros. third film of the summer earned a surprisingly strong $53.2 million, for a per-venue average of a strong $14,089 from 3,777 locations, and a solid 44% 3D share. With a strong marketing effort and the relevancy of natural disasters lately, audiences made this a must-see event. An even better sign of success? Reviews didn't stink (48% on Rotten Tomatoes) and the CinemaScore was a solid "A-". San Andreas ranked as the seventh-biggest opening weekend of 2015 so far behind Avengers 2, Furious 7, Fifty Shades of Grey, Pitch Perfect 2, Cinderella and The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water. This also ranked as the biggest debut for star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a solo lead (and his biggest outside the Fast and Furious movies), and the biggest debut of director Brad Peyton's career (he had previously directed family sequels Journey 2 and Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore).Overseas, San Andreas got off to a good start, earning $60 million from 60 markets, for a $113 million global launch. As usual for 3D tentpoles, international audiences ate this one up. As for the road ahead, the disaster flick will have two weeks to hold itself together before the highly-anticipated Jurassic World stomps into town on June 12. But even so, this will likely play through June, even possibly past July 4th weekend if its lucky. Do not be surprised if this ends up above $500 million worldwide. The budget was $110 million.
Holding the runner-up spot, Pitch Perfect 2 fell 53% to $14.4 million, for a very strong $147.5 million pick-up in 17 days. The Barden Bellas sequel is turning out to be very front-loaded, but if you only have a $29 million pricetag, then there's practically nothing to worry about at this point. The Bellas will have strong competition next week from Melissa McCarthy's Spy aiming at its' female audience. Regardless, Pitch Perfect 3 should be a foregone conclusion by now.
Following a lackluster debut last weekend, the news only got drearier for Disney and Brad Bird's pricey Tomorrowland. The sci-fi flick was off 58% to $13.8 million, for a disappointing $63.2 million gross in 10 days. Its' tracking a few million ahead of Prince of Persia through the same point, and still stands a chance at ultimately eking past $100 million stateside (thanks to no competition next week), but mixed audience reception is definitely not allowing it to save any face. Overseas continues to be just ho-hum, at $70 million so far and slowly rising (and this includes China).
Just behind Disney in fourth is the true surprise so far of the summer, Mad Max: Fury Road. The George Miller reboot pulled in $13.6 million, off just 45% from last weekend. Considering the strong word-of-mouth and considering most Memorial Day holdovers fall above 50%, this is a fantastic hold for a R-rated action flick. Max is at a solid $115.9 million in 17 days and is approaching $300 million worldwide thanks to strong international attention.
Repeating in fifth place is Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is starting to fade fairly quickly, off 50% to $10.9 million, for a one-month gross of a huge $427.1 million, on its way to a finish of $450+ million. That's essentially on par with fellow superhero sequel The Dark Knight Rises, but down over 30% from the first movie. Still though, how many movies (outside of holiday releases) can earn double-digit millions a month after they first start playing? Overseas, Ultron is at $1.32 billion with Japan still to open, ranking sixth on the all-time list passing Disney's Frozen.
There was hope that Cameron Crowe's latest, Aloha, would be a break-out comedy hit. But sadly, that wasn't the case. Instead, it wound up with just $10 million in sixth place, in line with what studios were anticipating late last week. Is Amy Pascal's leaked scathing comments on the film during the Sony hack to blame? What about the film's terrible 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes? They both could have been minor factors, but the marketing effort wasn't really impressive either. In terms of Crowe's other films, Aloha opened in line with Elizabethtown ($10.8 million) and the three-day weekend of We Bought a Zoo ($9.8 million), though that one had opened a couple of days before during the Christmas season. The film received a "B-" CinemaScore, and appealed mainly to older adults. There's an off-chance Aloha could hold well with some older adults not usually coming out opening weekend, but it seems more like a film that will fade fast. This is a particularly embarrassing opening for its ensemble cast, including Bradley Cooper, which had scored a career-best with American Sniper at the end of last year. The budget was $37 million by Sony, which doesn't have much coming out this summer.
After a solid Memorial Day Weekend debut, the floor fell out underneath the Poltergeist remake. The horror flick plunged 66% to $7.8 million, for a decent $38.3 million pick-up in 10 days. Unfortunately for it, competition arrives this Friday in the form of the solidly-buzzed Insidious: Chapter 3. But, Poltergeist did manage to pass the final gross of Unfriended ($33 million) to become the biggest horror flick of 2015 to date. The final domestic gross may or may not pass $50 million at this rate.
Below that strong Top 7 are the three fighting for scraps.
Far from the Madding Crowd held in eighth place and off 38% to $1.4 million after expanding to just over 900 locations. Crowd is at a solid $8.4 million in one month since its limited release. Tying it for the eighth spot was one of May's stinkers, the cop comedy Hot Pursuit. The Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara comedy is heading straight for the exits, plunging 62% to $1.37 million, and a disappointing $32.4 million 24-day gross (in the face of a $35 million budget).
The last Spring holdover standing turned out to surprisingly be DreamWorks Animation's Home, which held the tenth spot for a second-straight weekend. The surprise success story was off a Top 10-lightest 34% to $1.15 million, for a very solid $170.4 million in 70 days. Home has spent 10 consecutive weekends in the Top 10. Other recent movies that achieved that many weeks or more were Guardians of the Galaxy, Frozen, and fellow DreamWorks Animation movie The Croods.
Next weekend brings the return of Melissa McCarthy in the critically-acclaimed Spy, the third installment of the successful Insidious movie trilogy, and the popular TV series Entourage makes it to the big screen. Will all 3 start June off on a strong note?
I will have reviews of Paul Blart - Mall Cop 2 and Tomorrowland up later this week.
