None of the new movies that opened over the weekend did very well. “Chappie”(our review) was the top movie but at only $13.3 million it can’t really be called a huge success. The marketing on it changed from a movie about AI to “Hey, remember District 9?” and I don’t believe that helped at all. It did do well enough to knock “Focus” from the top spot but that took “Focus” having a 46% fall of from week 1.
Also opening was “Unfinished Business” (our review) which was an absolute bomb. It opened in the #10 spot and is Vince Vaughn’s worst wide release film yet. It did worse than his last bomb “Delivery Man.”
Overall it was a pretty uninteresting weekend with the biggest event being that “American Sniper” became last year’s highest earner. Next weekend Disney releases its live-action Cinderella and that is about it.
| Rank | Title | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | |||||
| 1 | Chappie | Sony | $13,300,000 | – | $13,300,000 | 1 | |||||
| 2 | Focus | WB | $10,020,000 | -46.4% | $34,573,000 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel | FoxS | $8,600,000 | – | $8,600,000 | 1 | |||||
| 4 | Kingsman: The Secret Service | Fox | $8,300,000 | -30.1% | $98,028,000 | 4 | |||||
| 5 | The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water | Par. | $7,000,000 | -35.3% | $148,993,000 | 5 | |||||
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.