Although two new movies opened nationwide this weekend, neither was ever a serious contender for the top of the box office.
For the third consecutive week, box office victory went to ‘Jurassic World‘. The behemoth sequel grossed another $54.2 million, just enough to push its domestic total to $500 million. The first ‘Avengers’ previously held the record as the quickest movie to $500 million (23 days), but ‘Jurassic World’ just did so in 17 days. The film is also still soaring overseas, where it has now earned $737.5 million, giving it a worldwide total of $1.24 billion.
A close contender for first place was ‘Inside Out‘. Pixar’s latest family flick fell 42% in attendance in its second week but still drew another $52.1 million. The picture has made an impressive $184.9 million over the last ten days.
Seth MacFarlane’s last comedy, ‘A Million Ways to Die in the West‘, was a major financial disappointment. ‘Ted 2‘ also fell short of expectations in its debut weekend, but nowhere near as badly. From more than 3,400 locations, the R-rated sequel opened to $33 million. The original ‘Ted‘ opened with $54.4 million in 2012. With one-third less income than the first movie, it looks like Mark Wahlberg’s statement in the ‘Entourage’ movie about making a third ‘Ted’ may not come to fruition.
‘Max‘, the PG-rated family flick about a dog with PTSD, came in fourth. From more than 2,800 locations, it only managed to wrangle $12.2 million, for a per-screen average of $4,277. That’s less than half of what R-rated ‘Ted 2’ earned. With a strong Cinemascore, ‘Max’ is believed to do well over time, but with such a downer premise, I don’t buy that.
Rounding out the Top 5 was four-week-old ‘Spy‘. Continuing its trend of soft week-over-week attendance declines (down 30.5% this weekend), the genre spoof added another $7.8 million to its total, which now resides at $88.3 million.
After a very positive run in the festival circuit, the Warner Bros. documentary ‘Batkid Begins‘ opened on four screens, but didn’t do the business expected of it. The film’s $23,000 debut only resulted in a $5,750 per-screen average.
Weekend numbers for ‘Escobar: Paradise Lost’ or ‘A Little Chaos’ have yet to be released.
Top 10:
1. ‘Jurassic World’ (Universal) – $54,200,000
2. ‘Inside Out’ (Buena Vista) – $52,128,000
3. ‘Ted 2’ (Universal) – $33,000,000
4. ‘Max’ (Warner Bros.) – $12,210,000
5. ‘Spy’ (Fox) – $7,800,000
6. ‘San Andreas’ (Warner Bros.) – $5,275,000
7. ‘Dope’ (Open Road) – $2,862,000
8. ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ (Focus) – $2,025,000
9. ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (Warner Bros.) – $1,735,000
10. ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ (Buena Vista) – $1,643,000
