The successful launch of Rogue Nation, the fifth Mission: Impossible film, continued the franchise turnaround begun by the fourth film in the series Ghost Protocol, and bolstered the star power of Tom Cruise. In a summer that has seen films starring screen icons Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator: Genisys) and Adam Sandler (Pixels) crash and burn at the box office, the continuing success of Cruise (at least in the MI pics) demonstrates that “star power” still matters.
Cruise’s star power evidently matters even more outside of North America where Rogue Nation made $65 million from 40 territories (roughly half of the overseas market). Ghost Protocol made 70% of its worldwide revenue outside the U.S., and the percentage for Rogue Nation could go even higher, since the film set new franchise records in 27 of the 40 overseas territories in which it debuted.
The opening weekend audience for Rogue Nation was predominantly male (62%), and older with 80% of the crowd over 25—and they liked the film giving it a solid “A-“ CinemaScore. With decent word of mouth and its 93% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Rogue Nation appears to be poised for fairly long run at the domestic box office where its total might eventually rival Ghost Protocol’s $209 million showing.
The news was not so positive for Vacation, a remake of the 1983 Harold Ramis-helmed National Lampoon’s Vacation, which debuted on Wednesday and only earned an estimated $14.8 million for the 3-day weekend (and $21 million for the 5-day period). Females made up a slight majority of the audience for Vacation (53%), and, not surprisingly, it skewed older as well with 36% of the crowd over 35. Audiences gave the film a poor “B” CinemaScore, which, coupled with the movie’s 23% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, spells trouble ahead, though the movie only cost Warner Bros. $30 million to make, which should limit any financial losses.
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Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): July 31-August 2, 2015 |
||||||
|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
|
1 |
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation |
$56,000,000 |
3,956 |
$14,156 |
$56,000,000 |
1 |
|
2 |
Vacation |
$14,850,000 |
3,411 |
$4,354 |
$21,172,000 |
1 |
|
3 |
Ant-Man |
$12,619,000 |
3,322 |
$3,799 |
$132,148,000 |
3 |
|
4 |
Minions |
$12,200,000 |
3,575 |
$3,413 |
$287,391,000 |
4 |
|
5 |
Pixels |
$10,400,000 |
3,723 |
$2,793 |
$45,611,000 |
2 |
|
6 |
Trainwreck |
$9,700,000 |
2,960 |
$3,277 |
$79,709,000 |
3 |
|
7 |
Southpaw |
$7,519,000 |
2,772 |
$2,712 |
$31,577,000 |
2 |
|
8 |
Paper Towns |
$4,600,000 |
3,031 |
$1,518 |
$23,816,000 |
2 |
|
9 |
Inside Out |
$4,517,000 |
1,904 |
$2,372 |
$329,594,000 |
7 |
|
10 |
Jurassic World |
$3,800,000 |
1,912 |
$1,987 |
$631,500,000 |
8 |
Marvel Studio’s Ant-Man narrowly held on to third place, dropping 49.6% (not a bad fall considering the direct action movie competition from Rogue Nation) as it added $12.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $132. 1 million.
Universal’s Minions slid 47% and ended up in fourth place, adding $12.2 million to bring its domestic total to $287. 4 million. Worldwide the $74 million film has chalked up an amazing $854.6 million, making it one of the summer’s most profitable movies.
The same cannot be said for Sony’s Pixels, which slid 57% in its second frame as it added $10.4 million to drive its ten-day total to $45.6 million. The Amy Schumer-starring Trainwreck dropped 44% in its third weekend in theaters as it earned $9.7 million to bring its domestic total to $79.8 million—topping $100 million remains a definite possibility for Trainwreck.
Antoine Fuqua’s boxing movie Southpaw, which star Jake Gyllenhaal, slipped to seventh in its second weekend as it dropped 55%. The adaptation of John Green’s Paper Towns, also in its second frame, tumbled even farther, dropping 64% as it earned just $4.6 million to finish in eighth place. This front-loaded YA novel adaptation looks like it will end up as yet another YA novel-based film that fails to make its money back.
Two films that have enjoyed long successful runs finished off the top ten. Pixar’s Inside Out ended at #9 in its seventh weekend as it added $4.5 million to bring its domestic total to $329.6 million, while Universal’s Jurassic World slipped 47% and added $3.8 million to its year-to-date leading domestic total of $631.5 million.
Bes sure to check back here next week to learn the fate of a quartet of new nationwide releases that Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot, the Meryl Streep rock film Ricki and the Flash, the Aardman Animation stop-motion Shaun the Sheep Movie, and the Jason Bateman suspense saga The Gift.
