The animated feature film Despicable Me 2 from Universal and Illumination Entertainment set a new five-day box office record for animated films as it earned a total of $142.1 million over the lengthy Fourth of July Weekend. Despicable Me 2’s 3-day total of $82.5 million powered the total of the top 12 films box to a 21% gain over the same frame last year when Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man debuted with $62 million. Meanwhile Disney’s pricey ($250 million) western The Lone Ranger earned just $50 million over its first five days (with $29.4 million coming over the 3-day weekend), leading analysts to proclaim the Johnny Depp-starring western as the third casualty of the summer of 2013’s overcrowded box office (Will Smith’s After Earth and Roland Emmerich’s White House Down are the other two certified cinematic box office duds).Despicable Me 2 has already earned $151.1 million overseas for a mammoth worldwide total of $293.2 million. The film’s five-day total of $142.3 million is just north of that of previous record holder Toy Story 3. With a solid "A" CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, the 3-D Despicable Me 2 appears to be well-positioned to become the top-grossing animated feature of the summer. The audience for Despicable Me 2 was primarily female (60%) and younger with 55% of the crowd under 25. Hispanics, a growing force in North American movie-going, made up 27 percent of the opening weekend throngs.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): July 5-7, 2013 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | Despicable Me 2 | $82,518,000 | 3,997 | $20,645 | $142,076,000 | 1 |
| 2 | The Lone Ranger | $29,432,000 | 3,904 | $7,539 | $48,936,000 | 1 |
| 3 | The Heat | $25,000,000 | 3,184 | $7,852 | $86,398,000 | 2 |
| 4 | Monsters University | $19,590,000 | 3,739 | $5,239 | $216,127,000 | 3 |
| 5 | World War Z | $18,200,000 | 3,316 | $5,489 | $158,758,000 | 3 |
| 6 | White House Down | $13,500,000 | 3,222 | $4,190 | $50,478,000 | 2 |
| 7 | Man of Steel | $11,415,000 | 2,905 | $3,929 | $271,206,000 | 4 |
| 8 | Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain | $10,100,000 | 876 | $11,530 | $17,460,000 | 1 |
| 9 | This is the End | $5,800,000 | 2,104 | $2,757 | $85,554,000 | 4 |
| 10 | Now You See Me | $2,770,000 | 1,606 | $1,725 | $110,415,000 | 6 |
Although The Lone Ranger was the work of the same team (producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski, and star Johnny Depp) that made the Pirates of the Caribbean films, the western saga has not been able to generate anywhere near the same level of box office excitement that the POC movies did. In fact The Lone Ranger attracted just about half as many moviegoers as the first Pirates of the Caribbean did during its opening weekend. The critics savaged The Lone Ranger giving it just a 25% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, though it appears that audiences like the film a little bit more, giving it an OK "B+" CinemaScore. The problem was that The Lone Ranger appealed mostly to older viewers with 58% of the crowd over 35 and 24% over 50.
Disney’s major hope in avoiding a big write-off on The Lone Ranger will be overseas where Johnny Depp is very popular (though westerns generally are not). So far the film has opened in just about 30% of the international markets and has earned $73 million. With a cost that many estimate at $250 million (and millions more spent on promotion), the only real question is just how much The Lone Ranger will lose
The only other newcomer was Lionsgate’s comedy concert film Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, a clever bit of counterprogramming that earned $10.1 million from just 876 theaters, almost all of which were in urban locations. Hart’s concert film proved very popular with a per-venue average of $11.530, second only to Despicable Me 2’s $20,645.
The holdovers did their part in setting a new Fourth of July box office record (not adjusted for inflation). The "R" rated comedy The Heat dropped just 36.1% in its second frame as it added $25 million to bring its ten-day total to $86.4 million. Last week’s winner Monsters University suffered the most from the success of Despicable Me 2 as it tumbled 57% in its third frame. Still it added $19.6 million to bring its domestic total to $216 million, becoming one of only six films so far this year to pass $200 million in the North American market.
World War Z slipped 39% in its third frame as it brought its domestic total to $158.8 million, while the struggling White House Down tumbled just 46% as it fell to the sixth spot in its second frame.
Warner Bros’ Superman reboot Man of Steel has now been in the top ten for four weekends. It slipped just 45% as it earned $11.4 million and brought its domestic total to $271.2, second only to Iron Man 3’s $406. 4 million. Man of Steel has earned $315 million overseas for a worldwide total of $586.8 million.
Sony’s post-apocalyptic comedy This Is the End slipped just 33% as it earned an estimated $5.8 million to bring its total to $85.5 million. The $32 million production still has a shot to pass the 100K barrier, a feat accomplished by the magician/caper film Now You See Me that rounded out the top ten with an estimated $2.8 million, which brought its North American total to $110.4 million after six weekends of release.
Another film that has demonstrated solid "legs" is J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness, which finally fell out of the top ten after 8 weekends of release. Abrams’ second Trek film has earned $223 million domestically and $220.8 million overseas for a total of $443.9 million. While the movie, which cost close to $200 million to produce and millions more to market has probably not quite broken even yet, it is far from a franchise-killing failure.
Check back next week to see how Pacific Rim, Guillermo Del Toro’s mash-up of kaiju and anime narratives will fare in the increasingly heated battle for the action movie audience, and to see if the star-studded farce Grown-Ups 2 can make an impression at a box office where there appears to be an abundance of comedies.