Over the Memorial Day weekend “X-Men: Days of Future Past” has earned $111 million (our review here), which is amazing, just not as great as the lesser X-Men movie “X-Men: The Last Stand,” which pulled in $122.8 million over the same weekend in 2006. The events surrounding the releases tell the story. Last Stand had 2 movies building it up and few other competitors in the Superhero genre. DOFP is in a sea of Marvel films and didn’t have the strongest predecessor to build on. However, DOFP also had higher ticket prices and 3D prices to help it out. If we want to find the big win for the newest X-Men installment it is that it has far better reviews, a reset universe, and a 4 day worldwide gross of $302 million, putting it only $160 behind Last Stand’s lifetime gross. I think it’s safe to say that while DOFP didn’t beat out Last Stand in this battle it will win the war.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past: $91.4 million putting it barely below “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”
- Godzilla: With a 66% drop off down to $31.1 million, and a total gross of $148.4 million.
- Blended: A big bomb (review here) from Sandler at $14.2 million.
- Neighbors: Still holding strong with a 44% drop down to $13.8 and a total gross of $113.5 million.
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2: A 54% drop in its 4th week down to $7.8 million, it just might crack $200 domestically.
The last weekend in may gives us “Maleficent” and “A Million Ways to Die in the West” which will make for an interesting top 5, I’m not sure I see “Maleficent” taking down X-Men.
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.