In what has to be seen as a bit of a surprise, the R rated comedy 22 Jump Street decisively defeated the heavily-hyped animated feature How to Train Your Dragon 2 in a battle of sequels at the box office.  The second Jump Street film earned an estimated $60 million in spite of being in nearly a thousand fewer theaters than How to Train Your Dragon 2, which finished second with an estimated $50 million.  The degree of difficulty for Hollywood in trying to top last year’s record box office earnings is apparent in the fact that, in spite of have two films debut over $50 million for only the fifth time in box office history, the total of the top 12 films was down 6.8% from the same weekend last year when The Man of Steel opened with $116.7 million.
 
22 Jump Street posted a debut that was 65% higher than that of its predecessor 21 Jump Street.  When the final box office totals are released tomorrow, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are likely to become the first directors ever to helm two films that debuted over $60 million in the same year (Lord and Miller’s The LEGO Movie is still the #1 film of 2014).  While 22 Jump Street more or less just transfers the plot of 21 Jump Street from high school to college, there is little doubt that the formula works with audiences, who respond to the franchise’s broad humor and as well as to stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.  The question is, will 22 Jump Street demonstrate the kind of "legs" that its predecessor did? 
 
Successful comedies generally do hang around longer than action movie tentpoles, and 22 Jump Street, which attracted an audience that was evenly split between the genders and skewed relatively young for an R-rated film with 56% under 25, is well positioned to hang around thanks to its solid "A-" CinemaScore.  After posting the second best opening ever for an R-rated comedy, trailing only The Hangover Part II’s $85.1 million, 22 Jump Street is clearly in contention to challenge Neighbors, which has earned $143.1 million, for the title of the top R-rated comedy of 2014.  It is already clear that 22 Jump Street is a true "breakout" sequel with the kind of success that insures the creation of a 23 Jump Street.
 
If Jump Street outperformed expectations, then How to Train Your Dragon 2’s debut has to be seen as a bit of a disappointment, even though it posted a 14% gain over the $43 million debut of the first How to Train Your Dragon, which opened in March of 2010.  After its somewhat underwhelming debut, the first Dragon film showed remarkable legs as it went on to earn $217.6 million domestically, which led many analysts to predict that Dragon 2, not 22 Jump Street, would be the mega-breakout sequel.  But the audience for Dragon dropped 7% from Friday to Saturday, an atypical decline for a family film, and in spite of stellar reviews (92% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes), How to Turn Your Dragon 2, which some even suggested would be the highest-grossing film of 2014, debuted slightly below expectations.
 
Opening weekend audiences for How to Train Your Dragon 2 were 53% female and 56% under 25, and they gave the film an excellent "A" CinemaScore, which certainly bodes well for box office longevity as does the fact that it will face no animated feature film competition for the next six weeks.  The movie also opened in 14 overseas markets (many of which are fairly small) and earned $24.8 million.  Unlike the situation here in the States, Dragon 2 was #1 in all of its overseas markets.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): June 13-15, 2014
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	22 Jump Street	$60,000,000	3,306	$18,149	$60,000,000	1
2	How to Train Your Dragon 2	$50,000,000	4,253	$11,756	$50,000,000	1
3	Maleficent	$19,008,000	3,623	$5,246	$163,525,000	3
4	Edge of Tomorrow	$16,175,000	3,505	$4,615	$56,649,000	2
5	The Fault in our Stars	$15,725,000	3,273	$4,804	$81,700,000	2
6	X-Men: Days of Future Past	$9,500,000	3,042	$3,123	$205,940,000	4
7	Godzilla	$3,155,000	2,088	$1,511	$191,301,000	5
8	A Million Ways to Die in the West	$3,077,000	2,413	$1,275	$38,937,000	3
9	Neighbors	$2,484,000	1,896	$1,310	$143,137,000	6
10	Chef	$2,276,000	1,102	$2,065	$14,076,000	6

Disney’s Maleficent continues to demonstrate solid legs as it dipped 44.6% in its third weekend and remained in third place with a $19 million weekend total and a $163. 5 million domestic cumulative.  It should finish its domestic run in the vicinity of $200 million.
 
The Tom Cruise-starring big-budget “original” science fiction drama Edge of Tomorrow fell just 43.8% in its sophomore session, earning $16.2 million and bringing its 2-week total to $56.6.  This is a pretty good hold, but it is mitigated by the film’s less-than-stellar debut, but if Edge of Tomorrow can continue to hang around at the domestic box office and prosper overseas where it has earned 76% of its worldwide total of $237 million, Warner Bros. might be able to avoid a big write-off on the $178 million production.
 
Last week’s winner The Fault in Our Stars dropped 67.2% as it fell to fifth, bringing in $15.7 million and driving its domestic cumulative to $81.7 million.  This front-loaded teen romantic drama may not even reach the $100 million mark, but it is already a major success due its modest production cost of just $12 million.
 
Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past fell to #6 in its fourth weekend in theaters as it dropped just 37.7%, earning $9.5 million and driving its domestic cumulative 5o $205.9 million.  DOFP is now the highest-grossing film of the young summer movie season, but it remains somewhat disappointing that this well-constructed all-star film that unites the various generations of big screen X-Men characters will finish its domestic run well behind a far inferior film in the franchise, the execrable X-Men: The Last Stand.  Fortunately DOFP is doing well enough overseas, where it has earned nearly 70% of its global total that there is no danger to the franchise in spite of the inexplicable decline in domestic interest.
 
Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla remains the poster boy for this summer’s big-budget front-loaded action films.  With a domestic total of $191.3 million, the new Godzilla film may not make it to $200 million domestic.  The good news here is that the film earned over $25 million during its first weekend in China.
 
Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, now in its seventh weekend of release, fell to #12 as its domestic total approached the $200 million mark ($198.4 million).  ASM 2 will break the $200 million barrier, though just barely, and its domestic cumulative will likely end up $60 million behind that of Marc Webb’s first Amazing Spider-Man movie, which earned $262 million.  The franchise’s disappointing domestic performance is likely behind the reports that Sony has pushed back ASM 3 from 2016 to 2017.
 
Captain America: The Winter Soldier earned $264,000 and remains $4000 shy of The LEGO Movie’s 2014 year-to-date best total of $256,328,000.
 
Check back here next week to see how the another comedy sequel, Think Like a Man Too, debuts along with the Clint Eastwood-helmed movie adaptation of the Four Seasons rock musical Jersey Boys.
 
 
Tom Flinn