James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy continued to demonstrate extraordinary "legs" as it topped the box office chart during its fifth weekend in theaters, dropping just 5.2% over the first 3 days of the Labor Day weekend, earning $16.3 million and bringing its 2014-best-so-far total to $274.6 million.  Despite the addition of two new films, the horror movie As Above/So Below and the espionage saga The November Man, the total of the top 12 box office films dropped nearly 8% from the same 3-day period last year when Lee Daniel’s The Butler held on to the top spot for the third weekend in a row with a $14.8 million haul.
 
Right now the moguls of Tinseltown are scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong during the summer of 2014 during which revenue fell 25% to $3.6 billion, the largest such single decline in over 30 years of box office history.  Does this represent some accelerating long term trend?  Not really since up until the start of the summer season in May, the box office was roaring along at a blistering pace.  No, the decline is more likely the result of a lack of new interesting films.  Note that we are talking about the domestic market here, foreign sales continue to increase as China increasingly opens its huge market, but it is clear that many of the big summer tentpole releases of 2014 like Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man and Paramount’s wretched Transformers are suffering from real "franchise fatigue" here in North America. 
 
There were other factors too.  After a glut of animated family-friendly features in the summer of 2013, there was a lack of such product this summer, the first time in years that Pixar has not put out a summer film.  Warner Bros. also did not have a DC Comics-based film of note.  The success of Guardians of the Galaxy demonstrates that people will show up for the right film, even if it is based on an obscure property that no one outside the comics market had ever heard of, but it would appear that the typical blockbuster formula of more and more elaborate stunts and CGI explosions loses its effect if it is not tied to a decent narrative that can engage an audience.
 
Meanwhile Guardians of the Galaxy continues to purr right along.  Not only did James Gunn’s film establish a potent new Marvel cinematic franchise, it expanded the summer season, by demonstrating that a blockbuster can debut in August and still be hugely successful.  Guardians should end the 4-day weekend with around $20 million, and appears to be a lock to become the first 2014 film to surpass $300 million at the domestic box office.  Guardians is not doing quite as well overseas, where it has made $273.1 million, but its longevity in the North American market suggests that it might have decent “legs” overseas as well.
 
The Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which has also benefited from the dearth of family-friendly movies this summer, continues to perform well, dropping just 29.7% as it earned $11.7 million over 3-days as it brought its North American total to $162.4 million.
 
The "teen weepie" If I Stay dropped just 41% as it earned $9.2 million and brought its domestic total to $29.8 million.  While its box office numbers pale beside those of the similarly-themed The Fault in Our Stars, If I Stay cost just $11 million to produce, which means it will be a solid, if unspectacular, moneymaker for Warner Bros.
 
Universal’s horror film As Above, So Below, a found-footage epic set in the catacombs of Paris, was produced for just $5 million by Legendary Pictures, which just left Warner Bros. for a new deal with Universal (see "Legendary Goes to Universal").  With a 4-day gross of $10 million likely, no one will lose any money, on the film, nor does it give any indication of being anything other than just another cheap “found footage” horror entry, which in spite of a major Internet ad campaign targeting the film’s audience, couldn’t manage anything better than a dismal debut well below that of the top performers in the “found footage” genre.  The film’s opening weekend audiences were evenly split between the genders, and young, with 64% under 25.  Hispanics, who make up a large percentage of the audience for most horror movies, accounted for 34% of crowd, with Caucasians next at 33%, followed by African-Americans (15%), and Asians (9%).  Opening weekend audiences gave the film a pitiful "C-" CinemaScore, which means it should drop like a stone in subsequent weeks.

Fox’s "R" Rated Let’s Be Cops also demonstrated some staying power in its third weekend in theaters.  Though it is no threat to 22 Jump Street, this faux-cop epic dropped just 24% as it added $8.2 million bringing its domestic total to $57.3 million, which means that the $17 million film is already in the black.

The November Man, which stars former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan as an ex-CIA agent brought back for one last job, is an adult-skewing, serious "R" rated take on the spy genre, rather than a breathless sort of Tom Cruise/Mission Impossible adventure.  The $20 million production could only manage a 36% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but opening weekend audiences gave the film an "OK" "B+" CinemaScore, which means The November Man could hang around at least as long as October as its older audience makes its way to the cineplexes.

The inspirational sports drama, When the Game Stands Tall (down just 32.6%), the YA novel adaptation The Giver (down 18.4%), and the art movie/food drama The Hundred Foot Journey (down 13.8%) all suffered modest declines from previously modest totals as they filled out the back end of this week’s Top Ten.

The same cannot be said of Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which confirmed its "total bomb" status by plummeting 66% and falling to #14 in just its second weekend in theaters.  So far the Sin City sequel has earned just $10.8 million, and doesn’t have a prayer of ever matching just the debut total of the first Sin City film, which bowed with $29.8 million.

Meanwhile the 30th Anniversary reissue of the 1984 comedy classic Ghostbusters, which was available in just 784 theaters, earned an estimated $1.7 million, a solid number that is in line with other re-releases including the IMAX reissue of Raiders of the Lost Ark ($1.6 million).  The Ghostbusters re-release in 784 theaters earned a per venue average of $2,105, which was nearly three times the average that A Dame to Kill For could manage.
 
Be sure to check back here next week to see if Guardians can maintain it box office dominance as it takes on a group of weak challengers that include the faith-themed drama The Identical, and several limited releases including the comedy/drama The Longest Week, the border region drama Frontera, and an IMAX reissue of Forrest Gump.
 
--Tom Flinn