The collective box office for the Top 12 movies this weekend was only $118.5 million, which is down a whopping 47% from this same period last year, making this the worst Fourth of July weekend since 1999.
‘Transformers: Age of Extinction‘ reigned atop the box office for the second week with $36.4 million. That’s a 63% drop-off, and the film’s ten-day domestic total of $174.7 million is much lower than the last two ‘Transformers’ outings. It looks like ‘Age of Extinction’ will close $100 million below the last sequel, ‘Dark of the Moon‘, which bowed out with $352.3 million. However, Michael Bay’s blockbuster fourquel is making up for that loss overseas, where it has now earned $400.9 million, up 21% from the last ‘Transformers’ movie.
The most successful of the new releases was ‘Tammy‘. Opening on Wednesday, the Melissa McCarthy comedy got an $11.7 million head start on the weekend. Over the actual weekend, ‘Tammy’ drew an additional $21.1 million. Despite bad reviews and a smaller start than McCarthy’s past comedies, the movie still had a nice little opening when you consider that it was produced for just $20 million.
Third place went to Eric Bana’s paranormal horror flick ‘Deliver Us from Evil‘. Grossing just $9.5 million from more than 3,000 locations, ‘Deliver Us’ failed to deliver much at all. The film’s five-day total brings it up to $15 million, which might not be half bad if the budget was as micro as the director’s previous scary movie. ‘Sinister‘ was made for $3 million, but we won’t know how much ‘Evil’ cost until the actual budget is revealed.
‘22 Jump Street‘ closed out its fourth weekend in the #4 spot with $9.4 million. Down 40% from last weekend, the $50 million comedy has now earned $158.8 million domestically and an additional $69.7 million overseas.
Also in its fourth weekend, ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2‘ rounded out the Top 5 with $8.7 million. Down a soft 33.9%, this is the sort of slight decline that the movie should have seen each weekend leading up to now, but hasn’t.
Disney’s Relativity-distributed kids’ flick ‘Earth to Echo‘ failed to crack the Top 5. With $8.2 million during the actual weekend, ‘Echo’ pulled in just $2,554 on average from each of its 3,230 screens. Box Office Mojo points out that this flop is the worst-ever for a Found-Footage title.
Two Weinstein releases in slow expansion played well over the holiday. ‘Begin Again‘ jumped up to 175 locations and landed the #15 spot with $1.3 million, for a per-screen average of $7,520. ‘Snowpiercer‘ hit the #16 spot, but didn’t do quite as well. It earned $999,000 from 250 locations, with a per-screen average of $3,996.
It’s also worth noting that the 102-screen re-release of The Beatles’ classic comedy ‘A Hard Day’s Night‘ only earned $160,000. Perhaps fans didn’t show up in screaming flocks because they already shelled out between $24 to $40 for the amazing Criterion Blu-ray just a week and a half ago?
Top 10:
1. ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ (Paramount) – $36,400,000
2. ‘Tammy’ (Warner Bros.) – $21,170,000
3. ‘Deliver Us from Evil’ (Screen Gems) – $9,500,000
4. ’22 Jump Street’ (Sony) – $9,400,000
5. ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ (Fox) – $8,750,000
6. ‘Earth to Echo’ (Relativity) – $8,250,000
7. ‘Maleficent’ (Buena Vista) – $6,133,000
8. ‘Jersey Boys’ (Warner Bros.) – $5,160,000
9. ‘Think Like a Man Too’ (Screen Gems) – $4,900,000
10. ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,640,000
William Henley
I saw Jersey Boys. While I kind of enjoyed the story, I agree with the reviews – awful directing.
We are looking to go see Earth to Echo this coming Friday or Saturday, but now I am not sure – I was thinking it was going to be one of those 80s suburban films, like Explorers, or Super8 (80s style), or something, but when I found out it is Found Footage, I lost all interest. I now have no desire to see this movie – I cannot STAND the found footage genera.
Doesn’t surprise me on ticket sales this week – I guess people who were going to see Transformers saw it last weekend, and there really wasn’t a good release this weekend (I know Earth To Echo was heavily promoted – at least in terms that they were getting YouTubers swag and screenings and such, so kind of surprised to hear that it did not do better)
Tim Tringle
Agreed, found footage is like the lazy Reality TV craze on TV. Everybody is doing it in hopes that they get a cheap way to make a quick buck. And while some work, it is now just a tired cliche. And like Reality TV, needs to just stop.
FiendishThingy
I must have been under a rock (Actually on vacation without TV or internet), because I wasn’t even aware of A Hard Day’s Night being in theaters until I saw Ringo interviewed on CNN tonight (his 74th birthday). I would love to have gone to a screening, and take an 18-year-old niece with me.