“Tomorrowland” barely beat out “Pitch Perfect 2” over the Memorial Day Weekend. Over the standard 3 day weekend “Tomorrowland” is only about $2 million ahead of the singing sequel. Adding in the Memorial day gross only pushes it to about $3 million ahead. It’s surprising to see such a low turnout for a big budget Disney flick, with a big name at the helm to boot, but I think some of the blame lays on the lackluster marketing. I couldn’t tell you what this was about other than tech, a magic pin, and a crotchety Clooney. Our 3 reviewers all liked it though, so it has to be worth seeing right?
Both “Pitch Perfect 2” and “Mad Max: Fury Road” kept pace with “Tomorrowland” and Max actually had a better holdover, dropping only 45% and now grossing over $88 million it is looking more and more like a sleeper hit. Both had a better hold over than “Poltergeist” had as an opening, making $23 million it was somewhat DOA for the holiday weekend, and not getting great reviews.
| Rank | Title | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | |||||
| 1 | Tomorrowland | BV | $32,972,000 | – | $32,972,000 | 1 | |||||
| 2 | Pitch Perfect 2 | Uni. | $30,830,000 | -55.5% | $109,597,000 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | Mad Max: Fury Road | WB | $24,815,000 | -45.4% | $88,255,000 | 2 | |||||
| 4 | Poltergeist (2015) | Fox | $22,600,000 | – | $22,589,000 | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | BV | $21,691,000 | -44.2% | $404,861,000 | 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.