The poor box office showing this weekend does not bode well for Hollywood’s all-important summer season, which took a major hit over the previous 4-Day Memorial Day weekend that yielded only about $200 million in box office receipts, which, when adjusted for inflation, was the worst Tinseltown showing over this key, start-of-summer weekend since 1998. There has been a rough correlation between Memorial Day weekend box office numbers and the overall summer numbers in recent years. In 2013, the 4-day total was over $300 million and the overall summer total was a record near $5 billion. 2014 sported a weak (but not quite as bad as this year’s) Memorial Day, and ended up with a summer season that totaled just over $4 billion. Does this mean that 2015 will be another so-so to poor box office year? Well it’s way too early to be definitive, but Tinseltown is starting to dig itself a hole that could be hard to crawl out of.
But there was good news for New Line (Warner Bros.), director Brad Peyton, and The Rock with San Andreas, which in one weekend eclipsed the “found footage” tornado disaster movie from last year Into the Storm, which earned $47.6 million during its entire domestic box office run. San Andreas, in which first responderThe Rock basically goes AWOL to save his family (and nobody else) from a monster earthquake, benefited from a strong marketing campaign that concentrated on the excellent special effects scenes of buildings crumbling en masse as the long-rumored “Big One” hits earthquake-prone California.
The $110 million production also earned $60 million overseas (from 60 territories) for an opening weekend total of $113.2 million total. It is very hard to predict how San Andreas will fare in the highly competitive market in the coming weeks, but The Rock has starred in a number of films that have demonstrated amazing legs, including the star’s first film with director Brad Peyton, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which opened with just $27 million and went on to earn $202 million in North America and an amazing $660 million worldwide. Look, The Rock is a major international star, and the subject matter of San Andreas (earthquakes) has been very much in the news lately (Nepal, Japan), so a strong international showing is likely. If San Andreas does hold up, look for the 1970s to be reborn in a deluge of computer-effects-aided disaster films.
The audience for San Andreas was fairly well-balanced skewing slightly female (51%) with 70% over 25—and they gave the film a solid "A-" CinemaScore versus a very mediocre 48% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. San Andreas earned 33% of its total from 3-D showings—and the 3-D factor could play an even bigger role overseas.
Second place went to holdover Pitch Perfect 2, which added $13.4 million as it drove its domestic total to $147.5 million after 17 days. Pitch Perfect 2 dropped just 53.3% and is already nudging its way into the top ranks of Hollywood musicals.
Disney’s Tomorrowland, while it isn’t exactly a bomb, is almost certain to end up as a money losing “write-down” for the Mouse House. The $190 million production plummeted 59% in its second weekend (59% is not a bad percentage drop for a summer blockbuster, unless it comes in the wake of a disappointing debut like Tomorrowland’s). So far the film has earned $70 million overseas for a worldwide total of $133.2 million, less than of third of what it will need to break even.
The outlook is brighter for George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which slipped just 44.7% as it earned $13.6 million in its third weekend for a domestic cumulative of nearly $116 million. So far Fury Road is demonstrating the kind of “legs” that should make Warner Bros. very happy.
Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron lost 500 theaters as it suffered a 50% drop in its fifth weekend in theaters as it earned $10.9 million to bring its year-to-date leading domestic total to $427 million. By this time next week Age of Ultron will have passed The Avengers’ overseas total of $897 million, but has no chance of matching its predecessor’s worldwide total of $1.518 billion, and will likely not pass Furious 7’s 2015-leading international total of $1.506 billion.
Sixth place went to Cameron Crowe’s Aloha, which debuted with just $10 million in spite of an attractive cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, and Rachel MacAdams. Aloha was hurt by the release of negative comments about the film from Sony’s Amy Pascal that were made public during the infamous "Sony Hack." Writer/director Crowe (Say Anything, Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky, Jerry Maguire) is a favorite of the critics, so Aloha’s 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is quite surprising with many commentators suggesting that post-production studio interference was a major factor in the film’s low ratings. Audiences gave the film a poor "B-" CInemaScore with viewers over 50 (31% of the crowd) giving Aloha an even worse "C+" score.
Meanwhile Fox’s Poltergeist plummeted 65.5% in its second weekend as it earned $7.8 million. After a solid debut, this out-of-season horror film took a step back this weekend.
The literary film Far From the Madding Crowd continues to do modest business as it earned $1.4 million, bringing its domestic total to $8.4 million, while the Reese Witherspoon/Sophia Vergara comedy Hot Pursuit sank 62% in its fourth weekend, earning just $1.37 million and driving its North American total to $32.4 million, which means Warner Bros. will lose money on this $35 million production.
Furious 7, which leads the 2015 worldwide box office, slipped out of the top ten for the first time in its fifth weekend in theaters as it earned under one million and brought its domestic cumulative to $349. 2 million.
Be sure to check back here next week when Paul (Bridesmaids) Feig’s Spy starring Melissa McCarthy (which has a sterling 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes and figures to be one of the top box office comedies of the summer) opens along with the movie version of Entourage and the horror sequel Insidious: Chapter 3 (neither of which have been screened for the critics—always a bad sign).
