Actress Shailene Woodley, who already racked up one YA novel-based hit this year in Divergent, scored again with her starring role in The Fault in Our Stars, a note perfect adaptation of John Green’s hugely popular saga of a star-crossed teen romance between patients who meet at a cancer support group.  Meanwhile Disney’s Maleficent nosed out the well-reviewed Tom Cruise science fiction epic Edge of Tomorrow, which opened weakly in third place.  Overall, the total of the top 12 movies was up about six percent over the same weekend last year when the gimmicky horror film, The Purge topped the chart with a $34 million debut.  Even a slight advantage over last year is good news for Tinseltown, which saw May box office totals fall to their lowest level since 2010.
 
The Fault in Our Stars debut proves that one demographic can indeed make a hit, in this case young girls.  The opening weekend audience for the teen weeper was a massive 82% female, with 80% of the crowd under 25.  The film’s long term future at the box office depends in part on attracting a wider demographic, though, since the movie only cost $12 million, it is already well in the black.  Strong reviews (82% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), an "A" CinemaScore from opening weekend attendees, and the potential that devotees of Green’s book, which has sold over a million copies, will want to see the film more than once, all should help keep the film in theaters, though its time at the top of the charts will be limited due to the arrival of Dreamwork’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 this weekend.
 
How much of the film’s success is due to Green’s book and how much to the growing appeal of Shailene Woodley is certainly debatable, but the actress’s recent track record strongly suggests that Sony should make the necessary moves to get Woodley back as Mary Jane in Amazing Spider-Man 3, even if it means shooting around her contracted role in the Divergent sequel.
 
Another female-centric film, Disney’s Maleficent, which stars Angelina Jolie, dropped just 52% as it slipped to #2 in its second weekend of release.  This has to count as a very good "hold" for a big budget tentpole, particularly since the audience for Maleficent, though older than Fault’s, still skews determinedly to the distaff side.  Domestically Maleficent has earned $127.4 million so far, while it is doing even better overseas where it has picked up $201 million, even though it has yet to open in China and Japan.  This week the film will pass the comic book-based Wanted to become the second-highest grossing live action film starring Jolie.  Right now it appears that Malificent has a good shot at surpassing Mr. and Mrs. Smith ($472 million worldwide) to become the star’s biggest live-action release.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): June 6-8, 2014
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	The Fault in our Stars	$48,200,000	3,173	$15,191	$48,200,000	1
2	Maleficent	$33,523,000	3,948	$8,491	$127,370,000	2
3	Edge of Tomorrow	$29,105,000	3,490	$8,340	$29,105,000	1
4	X-Men: Days of Future Past	$14,700,000	3,639	$4,040	$189,101,000	3
5	A Million Ways to Die in the West	$7,189,000	3,160	$2,275	$30,088,000	2
6	Godzilla	$5,950,000	3,110	$1,913	$185,043,000	4
7	Neighbors	$5,201,000	2,674	$1,945	$137,801,000	5
8	Blended	$4,050,000	2,928	$1,383	$36,509,000	3
9	Chef	$2,600,000	1,298	$2,003	$10,362,000	5
10	Million Dollar Arm	$1,822,000	1,643	$1,109	$31,347,000	4

The fate of Edge of Tomorrow, the big-budget ($178 million in production costs alone) science fiction film based on the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill, is much more problematic.  The film’s $29.1 million debut was less than that of last year’s Elysium ($30 million).  Elysium ended up with just $93 million at the domestic box office.  Edge of Tomorrow has gotten off to a good start overseas where it has earned $60 million, but even in the "new reality" of 2014 during which the growing foreign box office has rescued many a flagging franchise, it is hard to see how a film as expensive as Edge can earn its money back in theaters without bringing in at least a $100 million domestically.
 
The weak debut of Edge of Tomorrow is disappointing for genre movie fans (like this writer), since Edge, not only has a major star (Tom Cruise), but it also garnered excellent reviews, posting a stellar (for the genre) mark of 89% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.  While critics and analysts constantly carp (with absolute justification) about the endless parade of sequels from Hollywood, it is disappointing that a well-mounted original saga (though it is sort of a militarized version of Groundhog Day) like Edge of Tomorrow appears unlikely to break even.  Warner Brothers mounted a major advertising campaign for the film that stressed the "original" nature of the story--perhaps audiences are becoming more risk-averse than ever.
 
The audience for Edge was rather typical for the genre--61% male, and 73% over 25.  They liked the film less than critics, giving it an "OK" CinemaScore of "B+."  Perhaps Edge would have done better in a less crowded season.  It should be interesting to see if it will be able to hang around in the coming weeks as the competition for screens heats up even more.  3-D showings accounted for 47% of the film’s first weekend total (with IMAX showings contributing 14%), an indication that a high percentage of the opening weekend crowd was made up of hardcore fans of the genre.
 
Fourth place went to X-Men: Days of Future Past, which fell 55% in its third weekend in theaters, earning $14.7 million and bringing its domestic total to $189 million.  DOFP has now earned $533.5 million worldwide, with 65% of the total coming from overseas.  The basic pattern identified in previous weeks has not changed, DOFP is not doing particularly well (at least in terms of the X-Men franchise) on the domestic front, but making up for it overseas.
 
Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West finished in fifth place in its sophomore session as it dropped 57%, earning $7.2 million and bringing its disappointing domestic total to $30 million.
 
Legendary Picture’s Godzilla ended up in sixth place as it brought in $5.9 million, raising its domestic total to $185 million.  Worldwide, Gareth Edwards’ monster movie has earned nearly $394 million, with several key markets still untapped.
 
Universal’s Neighbors dropped just 36% in its fifth frame, as it earned $5.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $138 million, making it the number one “R” rated comedy of the summer so far.
 
Be sure to stop back here next week to see how Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon 2, the odds-on favorite to become the highest-grossing animated film of the summer and some analysts pick to top the 2014 box office, debuts along with the "R" rated comedy sequel 22 Jump Street.

--Tom Flinn