While July’s box office was down considerably from last year, this week’s record-setting opening may push August towards becoming more lucrative than last August. Also of note, thanks to China’s ongoing turnout, ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ is now a member of the Billion Dollar Club.
‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ not only took the #1 spot at the box office this weekend, it set a new record for an August opening. The comic book epic trumped the $69.3 million debut of ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ in 2007 with $94 million from 4,080 screens. This marks the third-highest opening of the year behind ‘Transformers’ and fellow Marvel title ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, respectively. This feat is extremely impressive considering that ‘Guardians’ is not a sequel nor a spin-off to an existing property – although it will presumably tie in with ‘The Avengers’ before long. Overseas, ‘Guardians’ broke into about 50% of the foreign markets where it grossed $66.4 million. With great reviews and strong word-of-mouth, expect ‘Guardians’ to have long legs.
Last weekend’s top movie, ‘Lucy‘, dropped a steep 58% but only slipped one spot in the process. Its $18.2 million second weekend brings the odd action movie’s ten-day total up to $79.5 million, which is pretty impressive for a movie shot on a budget of just $40 million.
The James Brown bio-pic ‘Get On Up‘ opened to a very mild $14 million, which is within a million dollars of last month’s disappointing ‘Jersey Boys’. However, much better reviews and word-of-mouth are expected to help this one do decent business for a little while.
Not even legendary strength could spare ‘Hercules‘ from a huge fall. On nearly 3,600 screens (including 3D), the FX extravaganza tumbled 64% in attendance, sliding from second place to fourth with only $10.7 million. The ten-day total for the $100 million production is at $52.3 million. Overseas, ‘Hercules’ has earned $56.5 million.
Rounding out the Top 5 was four-week-old ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes‘. The prequel-sequel’s $10.7 million weekend pushed its domestic total up to $189.3 million. Overseas, ‘Apes’ added $47.5 million, where it has collectively earned more than $258 million. The film is expected to cross the domestic $200 million mark within a week and will have no problem crossing the worldwide $500 million mark.
In limited release, Fox Searchlight’s well-reviewed ‘Calvary‘ opened to an impressive $72,800 from just four locations. The $18,200 per-screen average is an indicator that the dark comedy should play well as its platform release expands to more regions over the coming weeks.
Top 10:
1. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (Buena Vista) – $94,000,000
2. ‘Lucy’ (Universal) – $18,283,000
3. ‘Get On Up’ (Universal) – $14,031,000
4. ‘Hercules’ (Paramount) – $10,700,000
5. ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ (Fox) – $8,700,000
6. ‘Planes: Fire & Rescue’ (Buena Vista) – $6,424,000
7. ‘The Purge: Anarchy’ (Universal) – $5,551,000
8. ‘Sex Tape’ (Sony) – $3,550,000
9. ‘And So It Goes’ (Clarius) – $3,344,000
10. ‘A Most Wanted Man’ (Roadside) – $3,324,000
