Ant-Man opened to an estimated $22.6 million on Friday, which includes $6.4 million from Thursday night previews. That's one of the lowest starts to date for a Marvel film, just ahead of X-Men: First Class ($21.3 million) and The Incredible Hulk ($21.5 million). However, considering that the superhero itself isn't very familiar with comic book audiences, Ant-Man wasn't expected to be huge. Captain America: The First Avenger opened basically on this same weekend 4 years ago to $25.7 million on its way to a $65 million weekend. A similar multiplier here would give Ant-Man a $57 million start.
Minions fell 68% from its huge opening to an estimated $14.6 million. That's not a good hold for an animated film, but considering it opened to $115 million last weekend, a heavy drop seemed like it was in store. The animated hit from Illumination Entertainment is headed for a weekend of around $47 million.
Trainwreck opened in third place with very solid results, an estimated $10.7 million on Friday. That's the highest-earning opening day for director Judd Apatow, ahead of Knocked Up's $9.8 million first Friday. Its also a strong start for the acting portion of comedian Amy Schumer's career. The critically-adored R-rated comedy managed to edge out Spy's $10.3 million debut Friday also. If it plays out like the Melissa McCarthy hit, the film should end up around $30 million.
Inside Out and Jurassic World remained neck-and-neck. Pixar's animated hit was off 38% from last Friday to $3.4 million, while the blockbuster dinosaur reboot was down 41% to $3.2 million. Both are headed for weekends between $10 and $11 million. On Friday, Jurassic became only the fourth movie in history to pass $600 million (at record time). Meanwhile, on Saturday, Inside Out will become only the eighth animated movie in history to pass $300 million domestically.
More info to come tomorrow. Also look out for reviews for Minions and Jurassic World in the next few days (hopefully).
