Disney’s Maleficent, which stars Angelina Jolie, easily topped the weekend box office as it burst past expectations to earn an estimated $70 million.  Meanwhile X-Men: Days of Future Past became the first film in the X-Men franchise to earn over $500 million worldwide, and Seth MacFarlane’s R-rated western comedy, A Million Ways to Die in the West, opened with just $17.1 million, less than a third of the amount earned by MacFarlane’s Ted during its opening weekend.  Overall the box office was nearly dead even with the same frame last year when Fast and Furious 6 earned $35.2 million in its second weekend.
 
Maleficent played especially well to females, who made up 60% of an audience that was almost evenly split by age (51% over 25, 49% under).   In spite of mediocre reviews (51% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes), Maleficent managed to earn an "A" CinemaScore, which should keep the film in theaters for quite some time.  Maleficent earned $6.7 million from IMAX showings and about 35% of its sales from 3-D showings.  Maleficent’s stronger than expected debut testifies to the strength of the underlying property (Sleeping Beauty), the efficacy of Disney’s marketing, and the drawing power of star Angelina Jolie.
 
Meanwhile Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, in spite of an all-star cast and excellent reviews, dropped 64% in its sophomore frame as it earned an estimated $32.6 million.  A second weekend decline of over 60% is now common with front-loaded action films, and is certainly standard for the X-Men franchise since X2.  But Days of Future Past is still running 8% behind what is widely acknowledged as the worst film in the series, X-Men: The Last Stand, and DOFP, in spite of ticket price inflation and a 3-D bump, will be hard pressed to match Last Stand’s domestic total of $218 million.
 
Fortunately for Fox, DOFP has already set a new overseas record for the franchise with $338.1 million, and should end up with over $400 million earned outside of North America.  Days of Future Past has already surpassed the $500 million mark worldwide, the first film in the X-Men franchise to do so--though it should be noted that, if its total were adjusted for inflation, DOFP would still be in the middle of the pack, rather than the top earner in franchise history.
 
Third place this weekend went to Seth MacFarlane, whose ambitious attempt to revive the "western comedy" genre, A Million Ways to Die in the West, was DOA on arrival at the box office with an opening weekend total that was lower than those of summer comedy flops like The Internship ($17.3 million), Land of the Lost ($18.8 million), and Year One ($19.6 million).  More importantly, A Million Ways to Die’s opening was a mere fraction of MacFarlane’s first foray into movie comedy Ted, which debuted with $54 million back in 2012.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): May 30 – June 1, 2014
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Maleficent	$70,000,000	3,948	$17,730	$70,000,000	1
2	X-Men: Days of Future Past	$32,600,000	4,001	$8,148	$162,069,000	2
3	A Million Ways to Die in the West	$17,069,000	3,158	$5,405	$17,069,000	1
4	Godzilla	$12,225,000	3,501	$3,492	$174,657,000	3
5	Blended	$8,425,000	3,555	$2,370	$29,632,000	2
6	Neighbors	$7,715,000	2,939	$2,625	$128,601,000	4
7	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	$3,775,000	2,152	$1,754	$192,730,000	5
8	Million Dollar Arm	$3,700,000	2,329	$1,589	$28,097,000	3
9	Chef	$2,009,000	624	$3,220	$6,924,000	4
10	The Other Woman	$1,425,000	1,114	$1,279	$81,112,000	6

As might be expected it was males (55%) who made up the majority of the audience for A Million Ways to Die, and unfortunately, for MacFarlane, they were older, with 72% over 25.  Evidently younger viewers are uninterested in any form of western, including R-rated “oater” comedies.  MacFarlane may also have erred by appearing in the film in a major role, but it is hard to fault the protean writer/director for attempting something outside of his comfort zone, it just might have been one genre too far.  If Johnny Depp (The Lone Ranger) and Seth MacFarlane can’t revive the western, who can?
 
Meanwhile Godzilla continued its slide as it dropped 61% in its third weekend in theaters.  So far Gareth Edwards’ monster movie has earned $174.7 million and looks like it will finish up its domestic run right around the $200 million mark.  Fortunately for Legendary Pictures, Godzilla has already earned $200 million overseas, and is yet to open in China, so the $160 million production will likely break even before its theatrical run is over.
 
Adam Sandler’s family comedy Blended dropped just 41% in its second frame, but it opened so poorly that its small second week drop is rendered more or less meaningless.  With just $29.6 million earned so far, this $40 million production faces an uphill climb just to break even.
 
The situation is just the opposite with Universal’s Neighbors, which stars Seth Rogen and Zac Effron.  Neighbors has already earned a domestic total of $128.6 million against a cost of just $18 million
 
Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 slipped to #7 in its fifth weekend of release as it earned $3.7 million and brought its domestic total to $192.7 million.  ASM 2 will also likely finish its North American run in the vicinity of $200 million.  In 2013 there were 3 movies that debuted in May and earned over $225, while in 2014 it looks like maybe only one or two May-opening films will even make it over the $200 million mark.
 
Once again foreign ticket sales should more than make up for a slightly smaller U.S. box office take.  So far ASM 2 has earned $497 million overseas, making it the highest grossing film of 2014 in terms of overseas ticket sales, and virtually assuring that the film will finish its run with over $700 million worldwide.
 
Check back here next week to see how Edge of Tomorrow, an "original" science fiction film based on the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill that stars Tom Cruise, and the romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars, which features Shailene Woodley as a cancer-stricken teen, will fare at the box office.

--Tom Flinn