Driven by the enormous success of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, and Minions, the summer of 2015 got off to a very strong start, and only faltered late in the season. But, in spite of the late season swoon, 2015 will go down as one of the best summers in recent years with solid gain of 8% over the summer of 2014, though not all studios shared equally in the good fortune. Just two studios, Universal and Disney accounted for 60% of the revenue for the season in North America.
In addition to megahits like Jurassic World, which has now made $1 billion overseas in addition to its enormous $646.7 million haul here in North America, there were some notable flops as well this summer including Tomorrowland, which could end up costing Disney up to $140 million, the Marvel Comics-based Fantastic Four, which will likely cost Fox to write-off around $100 million, Warner Bros.’ The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which could end up $75 million in the red, while promotional costs help drive the expected losses from Cameron Crowe’s Aloha (from Sony and Fox) to as much as $65 million, and Adam Sandler’s Pixels (from Sony) will probably end up costing the studio around $30 million when its box office run is over.
Sony will make some of that back on the religiously-themed War Room, which dropped just 17.6% in its second weekend (it added almost 400 theaters to its initially modest total of 1100). This $3 million production about an African-American family that finds solace in prayer, has now earned $24.6 million, and should remain solid for the next few weeks. War Room’s per-venue average for $6,127 was the second best in the top ten.
Meanwhile Straight Outta Compton, which had topped the charts for three weeks in a row, slipped just 32.6% as it added $8.8 million to bring its domestic total to $147.8 million.
This week’s top newcomer was a film that targeted older viewers, an adaptation of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, which opened on Wednesday, but still had enough left to easily top The Transporter Refueled for the 3-day weekend with $8.4 million from just 1,960 theaters. A Walk in the Woods, which stars Robert Redford and Nick Nolte (who both are about 40 years older than Bryson’s protagonists), managed a per venue average of $4,286, which was more than double The Transporter reboot’s $2,076. In spite of middling reviews (Walk is currently at 47% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes), A Walk in the Woods should continue to intrigue older moviegoers.
The Transporter Refueled couldn’t even top Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, which has been in theaters for six months. The leggy Tom Cruise vehicle dropped just 12.3% as it earned an estimated $7.2 million to bring its domestic total to $180.4 million. Globally Rogue Nation has now earned over $500 million, and is yet to open in China.
The failure of The Transporter Refueled to come close to matching the previous film in the series’ $12.1 million November 2008 bow, demonstrates the problem with replacing a franchise star, even in what is a high-concept, action-driven franchise. Jason Statham may not be the second coming of Olivier, but audiences appear to prefer Statham to Refueled’s Ed Skrein—at least here in the States, where Refueled’s opening weekend per-theater average ($2076) signifies abject failure.
There is no lack of action movies in theaters now—just a lack of ones that folks want to see. The long-in-the-tooth Rogue Nation not only topped The Transporter Refueled, it also beat out the Weinstein Company’s No Escape, which has expat Owen Wilson extricating his family from a war torn third world country, and Guy Ritchie’s Man From U.N.C.L.E., which could have used some star power as well, earned just $3.4 million.
$3.4 million was also the total reported for Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos (The Rooster With Many Eggs), a Mexican animated film that opened in just 395 theaters, but which also posted the best per-venue average in the top ten ($8,608). Given the size and cinema-going proclivities of Hispanic Americans, Un Gallo, which received an excellent A+ CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, appears to be in for a lengthy run here.
Pixar’s Inside Out added over two thousand screens and returned to the top ten, as it earned $3.1 million and drove its North American total to $348.2 million, virtually assuring that Minions ($328.6 million) will never catch it (at least in the domestic market, Minions is much bigger overseas).
Marvel Studio’s Ant-Man dropped out of the top ten for the first time in its 8 weeks in theaters, but it still managed to add $2.8 million, bringing its domestic total to $173.2 million. A $180 million domestic finish is likely in the cards for Ant-Man, which still has some key foreign venues left that should allow the film to pad its overseas total of $210.5 million.
Be sure to check back here next week to see what happens when Sony drops a thriller with a romcom-like title (The Perfect Guy), and Universal releases M. Night Shyamalan’s grandparents-bashing horror film The Visit.