The weekend news was all about “Guardians of the Galaxy.” The most recent Marvel film is now the highest grossing movie of the year in the U.S. It edged out “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” on Friday. Guardians how now made $554.3 million worldwide with an almost even split between foreign and domestic markets. It also still have a few big foreign markets to open in.
In non-Marvel news….not a lot. “The November Man” bombed, you can read our review to see why, and so did “As Above/So Below” which I honestly had never heard of until checking numbers. That should tell you a bit about how much Universal spent on marketing the film. On the plus side the “Ghostbusters” re-release for the 30th anniversary made $1.7 million.
The next weekend is very light, with a “Forrest Gump” IMAX release and “The Identical” hitting theaters.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | ||||||
| 1 | Guardians of the Galaxy | $17,082,262 | -0.7% | $275,379,530 | 5 | ||||||
| 2 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) | $11,918,029 | -28.7% | $162,574,009 | 4 | ||||||
| 3 | If I Stay | $9,310,848 | -40.6% | $29,873,130 | 2 | ||||||
| 4 | As Above/So Below | $8,632,820 | – | $8,632,820 | 1 | ||||||
| 5 | Let’s Be Cops | $8,292,004 | -23.3% | $57,413,525 | 3 | ||||||
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 films 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.