Youth was not served at the box office this weekend and the results were not pretty. It appears that the ensemble comedy Think Like a Man Too won the weekend with an estimated $30 million, though no definitive judgment can be made until official figures are out tomorrow, since 22 Jump Street finished a very close second with $29 million. The Clint Eastwood-directed musical Jersey Boys debuted meekly in fourth place, earning just $13.5 million. With no big debuts this week to generate mainstream interest, Hollywood fell farther behind last year’s record summer pace as the weekend box office total was down 38.6% from the same frame in 2013 when Pixar’s Monsters University opened with $82.5 million. Perhaps one answer for Tinseltown would be more superhero films since 3 comic book-based films lead the 2014 global box office at this point (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Amazing Spider-Man 2, & X-Men: Days of Future Past).
Think Like a Man Too had a solid opening, though it was still less than that of the original film, which bowed with $33.6 million in 2012. The sequel reunited directed Tim Story with rising comedy star Kevin Hart, and with a production cost of just $24 million profitability is assured. Opening weekend crowds for Think Like a Man Too were 63% female and 59% over 30. The good news for the filmmakers is that they gave the film a solid "A-" CinemaScore.
Meanwhile the R-rated comedy sequel 22 Jump Street dropped just 49.2% in its sophomore session as it brought in an estimated $29 million and drove its domestic cumulative to $111.5 million. Though it still trails Seth Rogen’s Neighbors’ $145.7 million total, 22 Jump Street is on track to end up in the $180 million range.
Dreamworks’ animated sequel How to Train Your Dragon 2 also posted a solid hold as it dropped just 48.8% to an estimated $25.3 million. It has to be said that the film’s 10-day total of $95. 2 million is disappointing for a film that some analysts thought would not only be the top animated release in a Pixar-less summer, but also might well become the highest grossing film of the season. Yes, foreign grosses will make up the difference (the movie added $43 million overseas this weekend), but it is surprising that a film with such great reviews and great word-of-mouth from the first movie in the franchise should open so weakly. Perhaps having an animated cartoon series, Dragons: Riders of Berk, which is based on the film franchise, makes the dragon-riding franchise too familiar and commonplace, rather than building interest in the franchise.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): June 20-22, 2014 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | Think Like a Man Too | $30,000,000 | 2,225 | $13,483 | $30,000,000 | 1 |
| 2 | 22 Jump Street | $29,000,000 | 3,306 | $8,772 | $111,450,000 | 2 |
| 3 | How to Train Your Dragon 2 | $25,300,000 | 4,268 | $5,928 | $95,177,000 | 2 |
| 4 | Jersey Boys | $13,515,000 | 2,905 | $4,652 | $13,515,000 | 1 |
| 5 | Maleficent | $13,012,000 | 3,450 | $3,772 | $185,980,000 | 4 |
| 6 | Edge of Tomorrow | $10,340,000 | 3,212 | $3,219 | $74,511,000 | 3 |
| 7 | The Fault in our Stars | $8,600,000 | 3,340 | $2,575 | $98,728,000 | 3 |
| 8 | X-Men: Days of Future Past | $6,200,000 | 2,681 | $2,313 | $216,794,000 | 5 |
| 9 | Chef | $1,845,000 | 961 | $1,920 | $16,942,000 | 7 |
| 10 | Godzilla | $1,820,000 | 1,365 | $1,333 | $194,915,000 | 6 |
This weekend’s other major new release was Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys, his adaptation of the Broadway musical about the Doo-Wop group The Four Seasons. While its debut is on par with other Eastwood films in which the lanky helmer does not appear as an actor, this bit of counterprogramming by Warner Brothers does not appear to have worked all that well, though opening weekend crowds gave the film an "A-" CinemaScore. The real problem is that the audience for Jersey Boys appears to have come directly from a Geritol seminar with 92% over 25, 84% over 35, and a whopping 72% over 50.
Meanwhile Disney’s Maleficent keeps plugging along as it fell just 29.7% in its fourth weekend as it added $13 million, bringing its domestic total to $186 million.
The Tom Cruise sci-fi epic Edge of Tomorrow, like the protagonist in the film, refuses to die, declining just 37.4% in its third weekend as it earned $10.3 million and brought its domestic total to $74.5 million. Edge of Tomorrow still has a chance to hit the $100 million mark domestically, though it will have to survive the onslaught of Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction next week.
The teen weeper The Fault in Our Stars was very front loaded, but it managed a bit of a bounce back in its third frame as it dropped just 41.9% and brought its domestic cumulative to $98.7 million, not bad for a movie that cost just $12 million to produce.
Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past is also demonstrating some pretty good legs in its fifth weekend of release as it added $6.2 million and brought its U.S. total to $216.8 million. With a worldwide total of $692 million, DOFP will soon become the third comic book-based film with a global total north of $700 million. The top 3 films of 2014 so far are all based on comics (Captain America: The Winter Soldier $710.7 million, Amazing Spider-Man 2 $702.8 million, DOFP $692.1).
Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla finished its fifth weekend in theaters at #10. Though it earned just under $2 million this weekend, Gareth Edwards’ monster movie now has a domestic total of $195.9 million and should finish its run just over the $200 million mark domestically.
Be sure to check back here next week to see what happens when Michael Bay’s high-energy, high-decibel Transformers: Age of Extinction attacks the box office.
--Tom Flinn
