Weekend Wrap-Up: Maleficent is Magnificent Enough

June 2, 2014

Maleficent poster

It was a mostly good weekend at the box office with Maleficent earning first place with nearly $70 million, which was on the very high end of expectations. On the other hand, A Million Ways to Die in the West failed to match the low end of expectations. Overall, the box office pulled in $165 million, which is 11% lower than last weekend. That's not bad for a post-holiday weekend. Compared to last year, the box office was higher, albeit by 0.6%, which is much lower than ticket price inflation. Considering I thought it would be worse than this, I'm calling a 0.6% increase a victory. Year-to-date, 2014 remains ahead of 2013, but by $133 million or 3.3% at $4.16 billion to $4.02 billion. If June is as bad as May, then 2014 could slip behind 2013 entirely.

Maleficent dominated the box office chart with $69.43 million, which is on the very high end of expectations. This is 23.5% more than the opening weekend of Snow White and the Huntsman opened with and if this film has the same legs, it will finish with $191 million. However, Maleficent has a better internal multiplier, which suggests better legs, so $200 million is possible. The reviews are just 49% positive, but there's not a lot of direct competition this coming weekend. We will know more about where it will land this time next week, when we have the first look at its week-to-week decline.

X-Men: Days of Future Past fell 64% to $32.55 million over the weekend for a ten day total of $162.02 million. On the one hand, the other two monster hits of summer both fell more than 60% during their sophomore stints, so I really shouldn't be surprised this happened. On the other hand, I really thought its reviews would make the difference. It is still on pace to reach $200 million, but it very likely won't compete with Captain America: The Winter Soldier or The LEGO movie for top spot on the yearly chart.

A Million Ways to Die in the West was well back with just $16.80 million during its opening weekend. This is much lower than a lot of people expected, but it might not prove to be fatal. Its reviews are not good, but regardless it should reach $40 million domestically, which is what it cost to make. If it can get to $100 million, or more, worldwide, it will have made enough to break even sometime during its home market run.

Godzilla added $12.01 million over the weekend for a total of $174.44 million after three weeks of release. It is still on pace for $200 million, but barely. It will need to either recover next week, or get a push from the studio to reach that milestone. It is not going to be easy to get there, but it still could.

Blended held on better than expected down just 43% to just $8.14 million for a ten-day total of $29.35 million. Had it matched expectations during its opening weekend, this would have been a great result and would have been on pace for $100 million.

Neighbors also held on better than expected with $8.08 million over the weekend for a total of $128.97 million after four weeks of release. It has already broken even, so the studio shouldn't be upset that it fell out of the top five.


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Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Blended, Maleficent, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, A Million Ways to Die in The West, Neighbors