The latter part of August is normally where summer movies go to die, and this week was no exception. The only big release, “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” absolutely tanked, bowing in 8th place with a measly $6.4M and was easily beaten out by newcomers “If I Stay” and “When the Game Stands Tall”. Despite the fact that the original “Sin City” was well received, the nearly decade-long wait for a sequel definitely had a negative impact as the only people who went to see it were apparently hard core fans of the comic and movie critics (who were none too kind to it, as it is sitting at ta 44% on Rotten Tomatoes).
The good news is that “Guardians of the Galaxy” surged back up to first place and is now officially the biggest movie of the summer, and will most likely overtake both “The Lego Movie” and “Winter Soldier” to become the biggest movie, domestically, of the year by next weekend.
| TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count /Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | |
| 1 | 2 | Guardians of the Galaxy | BV | $17,631,000 | -29.8% | 3,371 | -326 | $5,230 | $251,884,000 | $170 | 4 |
| 2 | 1 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) | Par. | $16,800,000 | -41.1% | 3,864 | -116 | $4,348 | $145,610,000 | $125 | 3 |
| 3 | N | If I Stay | WB | $16,355,000 | – | 2,907 | – | $5,626 | $16,355,000 | $11 | 1 |
| 4 | 3 | Let’s Be Cops | Fox | $11,000,000 | -38.2% | 3,140 | +46 | $3,503 | $45,246,000 | $17 | 2 |
| 5 | N | When the Game Stands Tall | TriS | $9,000,000 | – | 2,673 | – | $3,367 | $9,000,000 | $15 | 1 |
| 6 | 5 | The Giver | Wein. | $6,730,000 | -45.3% | 3,003 | – | $2,241 | $24,101,000 | $25 | 2 |
| 7 | 4 | The Expendables 3 | LGF | $6,600,000 | -58.4% | 3,221 | – | $2,049 | $27,519,000 | – | 2 |
| 8 | N | Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For | W/Dim. | $6,477,000 | – | 2,894 | – | $2,238 | $6,477,000 | – | 1 |
| 9 | 7 | The Hundred-Foot Journey | BV | $5,562,000 | -22.5% | 1,944 | -99 | $2,861 | $32,750,000 | $22 | 3 |
| 10 | 6 | Into The Storm | WB | $3,800,000 | -51.9% | 2,375 | -1,059 | $1,600 | $38,301,000 | $50 | 3 |
Next weekend looks to be pretty lackluster as well, with only the new found-footage horror film “As Above, So Below” and action film “The November Man” coming out, so assume that Guardians will probably hold onto its number one spot for another week or so.
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.