Those loveable minions did it again as Despicable Me 2 topped the weekend box office charts with an estimated $44.8 million. It was a good weekend for sequels as Grown Ups 2 overcame savage reviews to finish in second place with an estimated $42.5 million, while Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim earned an estimated $38.3 million. With the top three films each earning around $40 million Hollywood enjoyed another strong session at the box office with an estimated 20% gain in ticket sales over the same weekend last year when Ice Age: Continental Drift topped the charts with a $46.6 million debut. Despicable Me 2 has now earned $229.2 million in North America as is poised to overtake Monsters University as this summer’s top animated feature at the domestic box office, and it is doing ever better overseas where it has earned $55.7 million this weekend and $243.2 million so far for a worldwide total of $472.4 million. Despicable Me 2 is quite likely to surpass the original Despicable Me’s totals, both foreign and domestic, by the end of its third weekend in theaters.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): July 12-14, 2013 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | Despicable Me 2 | $44,754,000 | 4,003 | $11,180 | $229,237,000 | 2 |
| 2 | Grown Ups 2 | $42,500,000 | 3,491 | $12,174 | $42,500,000 | 1 |
| 3 | Pacific Rim | $38,300,000 | 3,275 | $11,695 | $38,300,000 | 1 |
| 4 | The Heat | $14,000,000 | 3,128 | $4,476 | $112,363,000 | 3 |
| 5 | The Lone Ranger | $11,140,000 | 3,904 | $2,853 | $71,101,000 | 2 |
| 6 | Monsters University | $10,621,000 | 3,142 | $3,380 | $237,760,000 | 4 |
| 7 | World War Z | $9,430,000 | 3,003 | $3,140 | $177,087,000 | 4 |
| 8 | White House Down | $6,150,000 | 2,566 | $2,397 | $62,963,000 | 3 |
| 9 | Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain | $5,000,000 | 892 | $5,605 | $26,378,000 | 2 |
| 10 | Man of Steel | $4,825,000 | 2,150 | $2,244 | $280,995,000 | 5 |
As is often noted in this column, the reactions of movie critics are not good predictors of box office success when it comes to genre movies. Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups 2 was widely panned as "one long, smug, self-satisfied smirk at the audience," a "vile disgusting excuse for a movie," and as a movie that "will be hard to top as the worst film of 2013.' In fact the movie currently has a truly pitiful 7% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with only 5 out of 75 critics giving the movie anything close to a passing grade. And yet in its debut weekend Grown Ups 2 outperformed the original Grown Ups (if ticket price inflation is not taken into account) with audiences giving the film a less-than-stellar, but hardly harsh "B-" CinemaScore, the same rating that they gave the original Grown Ups, which went on to earn $162 million domestically and $271.4 million worldwide in 2010. The debut weekend crowd skewed slightly female (53%) and younger with 54% of the audience under 25.
With a cost of just $80 million, it is already clear that Grown Ups 2 will be a winner for Sony and Adam Sandler, whose recent offerings were largely box office underachievers. But the verdict is far from clear for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim, a combination of the kaiju genre with an Evangelion-like saga of mind-melding human robot pilots taking on forces of mass destruction. Pacific Rim is one of the very few "original" entries in this summer’s overly crowded cinema blockbuster derby and with a cost of $190 million, it represents one of this summer’s biggest gambles.
And since the summer’s other big gamble, Disney’s attempt to revive the western with The Lone Ranger, has failed analysts are already predicting that Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are going to take a bath on Pacific Rim. While its North America opening ($38.3 million) was not all that much better than The Lone Ranger’s ($29.2 million), Del Toro’s film does have some other factors working in its favor. The major one is the international market, the other one is a combination of audience approval (an "A-" CinemaScore) and glowing critical notices (71% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, a strong rating for such an out-and-out genre movie), which could keep the film in theaters and provide it with a strong "multiple" (the movie’s total domestic gross divided by its opening weekend). Pacific Rim is off to a strong start in some overseas territories (Korea, Russia, Mexico) with softer debuts in Australia where it opened behind The Heat and Despicable Me 2 and the U.K. where it came in #2 behind Monsters University. But so far at least Pacific Rim is outperforming a number of science fiction films like Prometheus and Rise of the Planet of the Apes that earned over $300 million overseas, and the film has yet to open in at least 50% of the overseas markets including China, France, Germany, Spain, and Brazil.
What has analysts worried is that Pacific Rim dipped from $14.6 million on Friday to $12.8 million on Saturday, an indication that the film had a strong appeal to highly motivated fans who sought to view it on Thursday night and Friday, but wasn’t connecting so well with mainstream moviegoers. The potent $7.3 million that Pacific Rim earned at IMAX venues, along with the fact that a domestic season high 50% of the audience saw the film in 3-D are both indicators of intense fanboy interest. Pacific Rim definitely catered to the younger portion of fandom with 47% of the opening weekend audience under 25 and 67% under 35.
If Pacific Rim does falter, who will take the blame? Will it be Warner Bros., which by most accounts has done a good job of selling the film, which only a week ago was tracking for a disastrous $25 million debut, or will it be Legendary, which has cut its ties to Warner Bros. and moved on to Universal (see "Legendary Goes to Universal").
The raunchy "R-Rated" comedy The Heat slipped just 43.5% in its third weekend as it earned $14 million and brought its domestic total to $112.4 million. It is becoming increasingly apparent that The Heat will have the staying power to knock off The Hangover Part III and become this summer’s top "R-Rated" comedy.
Any hopes of Disney’s The Lone Ranger reversing its fortunes appears lost after the film tumbled 62% in its sophomore frame as it earned $11.1 million and brought its domestic total to $71 million. Though the movie still has some upcoming debuts in major overseas territories, it has only earned $48 million outside of North America so far. Analysts are already speculating on the amount of the write-down that Disney will have to take on the film with guesses ranging from $150 million to $200 million.
Pixar’s Monsters University slipped 46.1% as it earned $10.6 million in its fourth frame for a domestic total of $237.7 million and a worldwide haul that is fast approaching $500 million.
The foreign market is definitely helping the zombie epic World War Z, which slipped to 7th place in its fourth weekend as it earned $9.4 million to bring its domestic total to $177 million. But overseas the Brad Pit action film has already earned $246 million for a worldwide total of $423 million, which is probably within $100 million of the breakeven point for the $190 million tentpole.
The more parochial subject matter of Sony’s White House Down doesn’t have as much appeal to foreign audiences, and the Channing Tatum/Jamie Foxx action film, which has earned just $19 million overseas, will likely finish its domestic run under $75 million, which would translate into a major loss for Sony on the $150 million film.
The comedy concert film Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain dropped just 50% in its second frame, but since it is in fewer than 900 theaters (almost all in urban areas), the movie, while undoubtedly highly profitable for Lionsgate, has not been a major factor in the box office derby in spite of its solid per-venue average.
Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel slipped to #10 in its fifth week of release as it earned an estimated $4.8 million and brought its domestic total to $281 million. While it is unlikely to top the $300 million mark domestically, the Superman reboot has made nearly 55% of its revenue overseas, giving it a worldwide total of $620 million and pretty much insuring that the franchise will live on.
Be sure to check back next week to see how two new comic book-based films, R.I.P.D. and Red 2 do in what is becoming a very crowded summer season at the box office.
