Weekend Box Office: Go Ahead an’ Jump

After the success of ’21 Jump Street’ in 2012, it’s little surprise that the sequel would open strong – but strong enough to trump the ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ sequel by $10 million? No one saw that coming.

With a domestic debut of $60 million, ‘22 Jump Street‘ is going down as the second-highest opening of all time for an R-rated comedy. (Sadly, ‘The Hangover Part II’ still holds that record with $85.9 million.) Shot on a rumored budget of $60 million, Sony has already labeled this sequel a huge success – especially considering that ‘21 Jump Street‘ opened to just $36.3 million two years ago. The numbers are also strong overseas, where the comedy has already grossed $20.6 million. Although nothing has been officially announced yet, get ready for ’23 Jump Street’. Do you think the next sequel will follow the story teased during the end credits of this one?

Flying closely behind was DreamWorks Animation’s ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2‘. Where the original ‘How to Train Your Dragon‘ opened to $36 million four years ago, the sequel pulled in a nice $50 million. Overseas, it has earned another $26.1 million. With great reviews from critics and audiences alike, it’s almost certain that ‘Dragon 2’ will have long legs. The last few DreamWorks Animation releases have been box office duds, so this comes in as the first true win since the animation studio left Paramount and moved to Fox as distributor.

Disney’s ‘Maleficent‘ is still suckering audiences, which is a major disappointment because it’s distracting moviegoers from the more deserving ‘Dragon 2’. The live-action re-telling of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ has steadily dropped one spot in the Top 10 over the three weekends that it’s played. This $19 million has pushed its domestic total up to $163.5 million, while its overseas totals are now up to $272.9 million.

Edge of Tomorrow‘ slipped a spot in its second weekend, but didn’t suffer the huge percentage drop-off that most sci-fi movies experience. The fourth place sophomore weekend brought in $16.1 million with a 44% dip in attendance. The film may never be deemed a domestic success, but its international numbers are making up for that shortcoming. Overseas, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ has earned $181 million.

Rounding out the Top 5 was the teen cancer romance flick ‘The Fault in Our Stars‘. As predicted from the front-heavy opening weekend, its second weekend saw a nasty 67% drop in attendance, down from $48 million to $15.7 million. However, the film was shot for just $12 million. Its ten-day domestic total is up to $81.7 million and its international box office has brought in $38.8 million.

Gritty Aussie crime drama ‘The Rover‘ looked promising, but didn’t see much action at cinemas this weekend, perhaps due to Robert Pattinson’s fading appeal. From five locations, the film only grossed $70,000. That number may seem decent, but considering that writer/director David Michôd’s previous film was the Oscar-nominated (and amazing) ‘Animal Kingdom‘, ‘The Rover’ definitely could have done more business.

Performing at a much lower level, Aaron Paul’s ‘Hellion‘ only earned $9,000 from one location.

It’s also worth noting that ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘ has crossed the domestic $200 million mark this weekend and has now earned $456 million from international markets. That’s even higher than ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. Also, ‘Godzilla‘ just saw a massive $36 million debut in China, which is Warner Brothers’ highest-ever opening in that country.

Top 10:

1. ’22 Jump Street’ (Sony) – $60,000,000

2. ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ (Fox) – $50,000,000

3. ‘Maleficent’ (Buena Vista) – $19,008,000

4. ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ (Warner Bros.) – $16,175,000

5. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ (Fox) – $15,725,000

6. ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ (Fox) – $9,500,000

7. ‘Godzilla’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,155,000

8. ‘A Million Ways to Die in the West’ (Universal) – $3,077,000

9. ‘Neighbors’ (Universal) – $2,484,000

10. ‘Chef’ (Open Road) – $2,276,000

4 comments

  1. William Henley

    Glad to hear Edge of Tomorrow is performing so well internationally. Maybe it won’t be deemed a failure after all, and we can hope to see more movies like that.

    As for Godzilla, it will be interesting to see how it drops off in China after the first week. I am actually surprised it opened in China almost a month and a half before it opens in Japan. That will be really interesting – to see how the Japanese market responds to it.

    • Chris B

      Holy Shit, saw Edge of Tommorow this afternoon and thought it was phenomenal!….except the very end. Whatever though, still loved the movie and it’ll be a day one purchase for me. Can’t wait to pick up an exclusive steelbook edition with a ton of extras (including hopefully deleted scenes and an alternate ending).

  2. I dont think The Rover is going to do good in general, a gritty post apocalyptic action/drama with Pattinson and Pearce? I love Pearce but he’s still so far from being a top name and Pattinson no one simply cares about outside of all the girls who love Twilight and they only seem to love him in that, of course he’s been in some pretty obscure stuff since then, which I would be too if I had suffered through making those shitty Twilight films 😉

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