In a weekend with little competition “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” performed very well. It didn’t reach the heights of many other box office successes of the year but the Planet of the Apes franchise isn’t nearly as strong as properties like Spider-Man or X-Men. At just shy of $73 million the film did better than its predecessor and is getting great reviews, we robots loved it. Transformers has now become the highest grossing movie of the year with $753 million world wide. It is killing it overseas, especially China where it has earned $262 million.
There wasn’t much else in the box office this last weekend, mostly just the continued decline of July while we all wait for “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: $72,611,427 with 36% of the first weekend being 3D ticket sales.
- Transformers: Age of Extinction: Dropping 56% from last week down to $16,302,415. It has now made over $200 in the United States.
- Tammy: Down 42% to $12,555,151 it has made over $50 million in its second week.
- 22 Jump Street: In its 5th week the sequel is down 34% to $6,501,558 and over $170 million total. Not bad at all.
- How to Train Your Dragon 2: Still just a step behind Jump Street at $6,073,372 and just over $150 million.
Next weekend is a grab bag with “Planes: Fire & Rescue,” “The Purge: Anarchy,” and “Sex Tape.” Three films targeting very different demographics.
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.