The weekend was a major bust for most of last week’s new movies. Aside from a solid win for the horror film, the other three titles are on track to join this summer’s streak of failures.
Of the new releases, James Wan’s ‘The Conjuring‘ walked away the sole winner. On 2,900 screens, the $20 million flick earned the top spot with a $41.5 million debut. The movie’s creepy marketing campaign, which frequently touted it as “Based on a true story,” proved to be effective. This has to make Warner Bros. excited after the flopping of the prior week’s ‘Pacific Rim’.
In its third weekend, ‘Despicable Me 2‘ claimed the #2 spot, even beating out the new DreamWorks/Fox animated film. ‘Despicable’ earned another $25 million, bringing its domestic total up to $276.1 million, which is nearly $30 million higher than that of five-week-old ‘Monsters University‘. Meanwhile, ‘Turbo‘, which got a head start with a Wednesday release, pulled in $21.5 million over the actual weekend, giving it a $31.2 million five-day debut. The movie only has one more weekend left to bring in the family dough before ‘Smurfs 2’ opens.
‘Grown Ups 2‘ slipped 51% in attendance and dropped from second place to fourth with a $20 million second weekend. After ten days, the Adam Sandler sequel has earned $79.5 million, which isn’t bad. What is bad is that it cost $80 million to produce.
Rounding out the Top 5 was Summit’s ‘RED 2‘. The $84 million follow-up to 2010’s ‘RED‘ opened to $3 million less than its predecessor, with $18.5 million. No matter how many big names were added to the cast, it wasn’t enough to help the movie’s domestic numbers. It’s too early to tell how ‘RED 2’ will perform overseas, but the sequel has earned $7.6 million from foreign markets so far.
Universal’s $130 million ‘Men in Black’ rip-off ‘R.I.P.D.‘ underperformed so badly that it couldn’t even claim the #6 spot. Instead, last weekend’s flop ‘Pacific Rim‘ locked in sixth place with $15.9 million, while ‘R.I.P.D.’ only opened to $12.7 million. Not even 3D ticket prices could save the movie from its bad CGI, humor and screenplay.
Despite bad reviews from Cannes, Nicolas Winding Refn’s first film since ‘Drive‘ did just fine this weekend. On 78 screens, ‘Only God Forgives‘ earned $315,000, for a per-screen average of $4,038. That doesn’t include VOD income. There hasn’t been any word on the amount that streaming services generated, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, it was enough to make ‘Only God Forgives’ the #2 movie on iTunes over the weekend.
Top 10:
1. ‘The Conjuring’ (Warner Bros.) – $41,530,000
2. ‘Despicable Me 2’ (Universal) – $25,059,000
3. ‘Turbo’ (Fox) – $21,500,000
4. ‘Grown Ups 2’ (Sony) – $20,000,000
5. ‘Red 2’ (Summit) – $18,500,000
6. ‘Pacific Rim’ (Warner Bros.) – $15,955,000
7. ‘R.I.P.D’. (Universal) – $12,763,000
8. ‘The Heat’ (Fox) – $9,325,000
9. ‘World War Z’ (Paramount) – $5,200,000
10. ‘Monsters University’ (Buena Vista) – $5,005,000
