When “Hotel Transylvania” came out in September 2012, it set a new September record. Now “Hotel Transylvania 2” has set another, breaking the firsts by about $5 million. It really has replicated and built upon the success of the first film, earning good reviews along the way.
“The Intern” did ok. It didn’t have a big marketing effort behind it. It is in the sweet spot for Director/Writer Nancy Meyers who’s films usually fall in that range. Holdovers “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” and “Black Mass” did the standard week 2 drop, nothing special there. However, “Everest” is a different story.
“Everest” did great in IMAX but when it expanded it only made around $13 million. That’s an 83% gain sure, but it moved into almost 2,500 new theaters. It should have done much better.
| Rank | Title | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | |||||
| 1 | Hotel Transylvania 2 | Sony | $48,464,322 | – | $48,464,322 | 1 | |||||
| 2 | The Intern | WB | $17,728,313 | – | $17,728,313 | 1 | |||||
| 3 | Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | Fox | $14,271,777 | -52.9% | $51,957,349 | 2 | |||||
| 4 | Everest (2015) | Uni. | $13,242,895 | +83.4% | $23,282,700 | 2 | |||||
| 5 | Black Mass | WB | $11,031,215 | -51.3% | $42,129,394 | 2 | |||||
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.