International Poster
Disney had better hope that Tomorrowland can do well overseas, because the $190 million tentpole directed by Brad Bird certainly had a disappointing bow here in North America where it was expected to score an easy victory over Pitch Perfect 2. With mediocre reviews (50% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes) and a similarly underwhelming “B” CinemaScore from audiences, Tomorrowland does not appear to be nearly as successful as the other movie franchise built on a Disneyland attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean. Families made up 30% of the audience for Tomorrowland, which skewed slightly male (51%) and older (61% over 25).
Early returns from overseas on Tomorrowland are not encouraging. It launched in 65 markets and earned just $26.7 million—and was soundly thrashed in the U.K. by Pitch Perfect 2, which was already in its second weekend in Blighty. It’s a bit too early to use the “B” word (“bomb”), but Disney had better hope for better results in the coming weeks (and perhaps a bit of a “rescue” from the Chinese market, but that is certainly no guarantee).
Pitch Perfect 2 dropped 56% in its second frame here in the States, but since it opened with $70 million, the drop didn’t prevent the film from earning an estimated $30.3 million over the 3-day period and coming in a very close second to Tomorrowland. So far Pitch Perfect 2, which cost just $29 million to make, has earned $187 worldwide, so the a cappella musical is already a big moneymaker after just ten days in theaters.
The news was positive for George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which suffered just a 47% drop as it earned $23.8 million in its second frame, bringing its domestic cumulative to $87.3 million. Fury Road is starting to show the kind of “legs” it will need to offset its $150 million budget. While its stunt work and action set pieces are second to none, Fury Road’s gritty “desert rats” mise-en-scene is about as far from the glossy superhero blockbusters as you can get, so it is encouraging to see an uncompromising R-rated action film like Fury Road establish itself in a very crowded cinematic landscape.
Meanwhile the glossy superhero blockbuster du jour, Joss Whedon’s Avengers: The Age of Ultron, just keeps chugging along. This weekend Age of Ultron became the first film to cross the $400 million threshold in the domestic market since The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Frozen, both of which were released in November of 2013. Will Age of Ultron become only the fifth film to earn more than $450 million in North America? Well, Age of Ultron made $20.9 million during the first 3 days of the weekend, which raised its cumulative to $404.1 million. The way Disney manages to keep its hits in theaters, $450 million remains a possibility, though it won’t be easy.
Overseas Age of Ultron has already amassed $860 million, $210 million of which came from China, for a global total of $1.263 billion, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of all time (not adjusted for inflation), as it passed Iron Man 3. Next up for Age of Ultron is Disney’s Frozen at $1.274 billion and the Harry Potter finale ($1.341 billion). Though it rules in the domestic market so far in 2014, Age of Ultron trails (and will likely never catch) Furious 7’s worldwide total of $1.490 billion and the first Avenger film’s massive $1.518 billion.
The one new film that did perform better-than-expected was the Sam Raimi-produced Poltergeist, a remake of the 1982 horror film, which topped forecasts by earning an estimated $23 million, good enough to nose out Age of Ultron and slip into fourth place. The better-than-expected showing demonstrates that old school “haunted house” horror still has audience appeal.
The bottom five films in the top ten all made less than $3.4 million, which makes them all pretty irrelevant, though it should be noted that the excellent adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd managed to earn $3 million from just 289 theaters thanks to a $10,381 per venue average that was the best in the top ten.
Be sure to stop back here next weekend and see what happens when The Rock takes on massive earthquake in the disaster film San Andreas, and Cameron Crowe’s romantic comedy/drama Aloha, which stars Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, and Rachel MacAdams, also opens nationwide.
