I’ve got to say I’m pretty surprised that a movie based on a YA novel about kids with cancer beat Tom Cruise so badly. That isn’t to say that “The Fault in our Stars” is undeserving just that I’m surprised that Tom Cruise has had 2 big budget sci-fi films (and this one well reviewed) do so poorly. Maybe the marketing just didn’t hit hard enough on what made the movie different and it felt too much like recent “near future sci-fi” films that have also failed. It has found an audience overseas much like “Pacific Rim” so at least it has something going on. Now I’m not surprised that Fault’s audience was overwhelming women under 25, that was the target demo that they aggressively marketed to and it worked even to the point of getting them in their seats on Thursday giving the film a front loaded opening with a steep drop (over 50%) from Friday to Saturday. Maleficent held strong as well and should cross the $200 million mark.
- The Fault in our Stars: $48 million to start, very nice, even better on a $12 million budget.
- Maleficent: A 50% drop to $34.3 million and $128 million over all.
- Edge of Tomorrow: $28.7 million in week 1 domestically, but $111 million foreign takes the sting out.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past: $15 million in week 3, which is a 53% drop from last week. Closing in on $200 gross.
- A Million Ways to Die in the West: A 56% drop in week 2 after a very weak opening, $7.3 million for Seth.
Competition stays tough most of this summer, next week brings in “22 Jump Street” and “How to Train Your Dragon 2” with another Transformers flick hitting before June ends.
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.