With a string of less than stellar weekends that began before Memorial Day, Hollywood really needs Jurassic Park to open big next weekend to get this summer season back on track.
Spy attracted a crowd that was 60% female, and older (65% over 25). They gave the movie an OK “B+” CinemaScore, which is a much less positive grade than the critics rendered. While Spy did bow below expectations, McCarthy’s movies have generally had very strong “legs,” and there are no big comedy movies opening for three weeks. Audiences might be shying away from Spy because of some recent less-than-stellar films starring McCarthy including Identity Thief and Tammy, so the next few weeks should tell whether the folks who made Feig’s Bridesmaids an R-rated comedy smash, can be lured back by positive word-of-mouth for Spy.
After opening about expectations last weekend, the earthquake movie San Andreas, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, dropped just 51.6%--a very solid hold for heavily-hyped summer blockbuster. So far San Andreas has earned $92.2 million in North America and $60 million overseas.
Third place went to the horror sequel Insidious Chapter 3, which debuted with an estimated $23 million thanks to a solid $7,662 per-venue average. Audiences for the third Insidious film skewed slightly female (54%), and definitely younger (69% under 25, 30% under 18). Produced for just $10 million and rated “PG-13,” Insidious 3, like Spy, earned an OK “B+” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences.
This weekend was about as crowded as any we will see this summer with three “middleweight” films opening, Spy, Insidious 3, and Entourage, an R-rated comedy featuring the cast (and ambiance) of the late HBO TV series. While it’s a bit early to call Entourage a “bomb,” its $10.4 million take was about half of what was expected. Entourage actually opened on Wednesday and earned a respectable mid-week total of $5.2 million for the day. But evidently that represents the extent of hardcore Entourage fandom as the film’s 5-day total through and including Sunday was just $17.8 million.
Not surprisingly Entourage attracted an audience that was 64% male and 90% under 50—and unlike the critics who gave the film a poor 30% positive rating, the Entourage fans who saw the film gave it an “A-“ CinemaScore. Since the original TV series ran from 2004 to 2011, perhaps this was not the right time to take the franchise to the big screen—it hasn’t been gone long enough for anyone to get nostalgic about it, and its male “rat pack” vibe doesn’t fit the current zeitgeist, and certainly doesn’t make Hollywood, which is justifiably under fire for a lack of good roles for women and minorities, look any better.
Mad Max: Fury Road, Pitch Perfect 2, and Avengers: Age of Ultron all posted solid holds. Now in its sixth week in theaters, Age of Ultron earned $6.2 million to bring its 2015-leading domestic total to $438 million. Overseas, Age of Ultron has now raked in $910 million, surpassing Whedon’s first Avengers movie, which earned $897 millon—and Age of Ultron’s worldwide total of $1.348 billion is now good for fifth place (not adjusted for inflation). Next up for Age of Ultron are Furious 7 ($1.510 billion) and the original Avengers’ $1.5186 billion—though with only one major territory left (Japan next month), further progress up the list is unlikely.
Cameron Crowe’s Aloha plummeted 65.9% in its second weekend as it fell to #9 and cemented its box office “bomb” status.
Be sure to check back here next week to find out if the highly-anticipated Jurassic Park, next weekend’s only wide release, can reverse the current downward box office trend.