Another good weekend at the box office
Weekend Report: 'Turtle' Power
by Ray Subers -- August 10, 2014
Ninja Turtles fans old and young showed up at the movies this weekend, driving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to one of the biggest August openings ever.
Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy scored the highest second weekend of the Summer so far.
The Top 12 earned an estimated $173.6 million this weekend, which is up 22 percent from the same frame last year. This August remains on track to be the biggest ever, and could be the first to pass $1 billion.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ruled the box office with an estimated $65 million this weekend. That ranks fourth all-time in the month of August. It's noticeably higher than G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra ($54.7 million), though 3D premiums and ticket price inflation likely account for most of that gap. The movie also made more in one weekend than 2007 animated Turtles movie TMNT earned in its entire run.
This strong opening can be attributed primarily to the power of the Ninja Turtles brand. Older moviegoers (over 25, at least), have a fondness for the Turtles of the 80s and 90s, while children have formed a connection with the Turtles via the recent (and very popular) Nickelodeon animated show. This new version managed to align nicely with the existing brand, while also creating something visually distinct from its predecessors (primarily with the CGI turtles and Michael Bay style action). As a result, it drew strong interest from moviegoers young and old: according to Paramount, the audience was 55 percent over the age of 25.
Reviews are poor (19 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), and word-of-mouth is mixed (a "B" CinemaScore isn't great for a movie like this), so it's unclear exactly how well Ninja Turtles is going to hold up. If it plays like the recent Transformers movie, it will wind up with less than $160 million. A better comparison may be G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which opened on the same weekend in 2009: if Turtles follows that movie's pattern, it will close with nearly $180 million.
Paramount seems fairly pleased with these opening weekend results: on Sunday morning, they announced that they plan to release a sequel on June 3rd, 2016.
In second place, Guardians of the Galaxy fell 56 percent to $41.5 million, which is the biggest second weekend of the Summer. That drop is essentially on par with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World. To date, Guardians has earned $175.9 million—the best 10-day total of the year—and remains on track to be the top movie of the Summer with over $260 million.
Into the Storm opened in third place with an estimated $18 million. That's identical to director Steven Quale's Final Destination 5, which opened to $18 milloin around the same time in 2011. It's also a bit higher than Snakes on a Plane ($15.2 million), which had a similar B-movie quality to it.
Of course, the closest comparison for Into The Storm is fellow tornado movie Twister, which opened to $41 million back in 1996. The difference between these two movies is that Twister had human characters to connect to, while Into the Storm was exclusively focused on delivering CGI thrills.
The audience was 58 percent female and 71 percent over the age of 25. They awarded the movie a "B" CinemaScore. This is the type of movie that is usually very front-loaded; it would be surprising if this ultimately came anywhere near $50 million.
The Hundred-Foot Journey opened in fourth place with an estimated $11.1 million. That's a bit higher than May's Million Dollar Arm; unfortunately, it paled in comparison to similar August releases like Eat Pray Love ($23.1 million) and Julie & Julia ($20 million). With strong word-of-mouth and an audience that skews much older (69 percent over the age of 35), this should hold up well: a total close to $40 million is possible.
Rounding out the Top Five, Lucy fell 49 percent to an estimated $9.3 million. To date, the Scarlett Johansson/Luc Besson thriller has grossed $97.4 million, and will pass $100 million sometime this week.
Step Up All In tanked with $6.6 million this weekend. That's down 44 percent from the previous installment, which was already the lowest-grossing outing in the franchise. Even with solid international returns, it would be surprising if a sixth Step Up got a theatrical release here in the U.S.
Lionsgate/Summit has released six movies at over 2,000 locations this year. Aside from Divergent—which was obviously a huge success—the other five have all debuted below $10 million.
Despite good reviews and solid word-of-mouth ("A" CinemaScore), Get On Up got crushed in its second weekend. The James Brown biopic fell 63 percent to $5 million, which brings its total to $22.9 million.
A Most Wanted Man fell 31 percent to $2.2 million, and has now earned $10.4 million total. Meanwhile, Richard Linklater's Boyhood expanded to 507 theaters and added $2.1 million. The movie has now taken in $10.7 million, and will continue its expansion next weekend.
James Cameron's Deepsea Challenge 3D opened to $150,900 at 304 theaters, which translates to a horrible $496 per-theater average.
Daniel Radcliffe/Zoe Kazan rom-com What If earned $130,000 from 20 theaters. In comparison, Kazan's Ruby Sparks opened a bit higher than that in just 13 locations. Ruby Sparks ultimately closed with $2.5 million, which would be a disappointing result for What If. Radcliffe should help give the movie a boost as it expands in to more theaters, but this is still a weak start for the movie.
Around-the-World Roundup
Guardians of the Galaxy added $40.1 million overseas, which brings its early total to $137 million. Its only significant new territory was Australia, where it took first place with $6 million ($8.2 million including previews). It still has six major markets left to open; next weekend, it expands in to France and Spain.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opened to $28.7 million this weekend; its only major markets were Russia ($11.1 million) and Mexico ($6.9 million). Both of those are strong debuts that rival recent major releases like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Turtles brand is internationally recognizable, and the movie seems conceived of with foreign moviegoers in mind; while there's not quite enough data at this point, it still seems like $300-million-plus is a likely outcome.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes added $29.5 million this weekend. That includes a very good $6.2 million start in Germany. The movie has now earned $306.1 million overseas, which is ahead of Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($305 million). With China and Japan on the way, Dawn will have no problem topping $400 million overseas.
Transformers: Age of Extinction reached its final major markets this weekend. It scored $6.3 million in Japan (on par with the second installment) and $2.8 million in Spain. Overall, it's now earned $789.3 million overseas, which ranks ninth all-time ahead of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
