If I look real hard for a silver lining for “Pan” it’s that it isn’t the first big budget film to bomb this year. There have been plenty of films that paved the way. “Pan” did pretty poorly, opening at about $15 million. It had a budget of $150. Just from previews alone it didn’t look like a film that was going to do well. Neverland is well traveled ground and a “new” story about it with a giant budget just didn’t seem to be a good idea. Pushing the release back for reshoots all but guaranteed that it would have issues.
“The Martian” is still sciencing the shit out of the box office and has earned over $100 million domestic now and is kicking ass overseas as well. It is well on its way to banking over $200 million and potentially being the best commercial success for Ridley Scott.
Following in the footsteps of “Sicario” by making a crazy high limited release per theater average “Steve Jobs” made $130,000 in it’s limited release. That’s the highest of any 2015 film. It hits wide release next week.
| Rank | Title | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | |||||
| 1 | The Martian | Fox | $37,005,266 | -31.9% | $108,715,595 | 2 | |||||
| 2 | Hotel Transylvania 2 | Sony | $20,420,392 | -38.5% | $116,942,033 | 3 | |||||
| 3 | Pan | WB | $15,315,435 | – | $15,315,435 | 1 | |||||
| 4 | The Intern | WB | $8,678,187 | -25.7% | $49,592,234 | 3 | |||||
| 5 | Sicario | LGF | $7,579,324 | -37.6% | $26,935,340 | 4 | |||||
A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a film’s success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.
All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.