Weekend Wrap-Up: X-Men Earn Monster Opening, but Overall Box Office Still Down

May 27, 2014

X-Men: Days of Future Past poster

X-Men: Days of Future Past easily won the weekend race at the box office earning more than $100 million over the four-day weekend. That's great news and it helped the overall box office grow by 5% to $187 million over the three-day weekend from last week. That's the good news. The bad news the other new release, Blended, bombed and the three-day weekend was down 27% from the same weekend last year. In fact, this year's four-day weekend total of $231 million was 9% lower than last year's three-day total and 26% lower than the four-day weekend from last year. That's a devastating collapse. The only saving grace is last year was a record-breaking Memorial Day long weekend, so a sharp drop-off isn't that unexpected. So far, 2014 has pulled in $3.95 billion, which is 4% more than 2013's running tally of $3.80 billion.

X-Men: Days of Future Past opened with $90.82 million / $110.58 million during the weekend. This is the fourth-best three-day opening of the year so far. It is also the second-best opening in the franchise, behind only X-Men: The Last Stand. Granted, it wasn't quite as high as some were predicting, but it is strong enough. The film's reviews are among the best for the year so far and with summer starting, it should have strong legs. On the other hand, it did cost $200 million to make, so it will need at least $500 million worldwide to break even. I would be shocked if it didn't get there, given its opening.

On the other hand, good reviews didn't help Godzilla, as the film plummeted 67% during the three-day weekend to $30.95 million over the three-day weekend, while its four-day weekend haul was $38.44 million. Its running tally is currently $155.79 million and it should get to $200 million domestically. This is enough to be a financial success and it is likely another installment in the Godzilla franchise will happen.

As expected, Blended earned third place during its opening. However, its actual box office was well below expectations with just $14.28 million / $17.74 million during the three-day / four-day weekend. Add in the terrible reviews and the film's legs will likely be really short. Finally, Adam Sandler films tend to be more expensive than the average comedy, and they rarely do well internationally, so this is likely not enough to break even any time soon.

Neighbors landed in fourth place with $14.02 million / $17.12 million over the weekend for a running tally of $116.80 million. Given its production budget, it has likely broken even, even without taking into account of the film's international numbers.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 fell faster than expected, but still hung onto a spot in the top five with $7.82 million / $10.01 million. So far it has made $187.11 million and will reach $200 million before it is done. This is rather weak, given its production budget, but it did better internationally, so it will break even eventually.

Million Dollar Arm was the only other film in the sophomore class. It landed in sixth place with $6.97 million / $9.17 million over the weekend for a total of $22.70 million after 11 days of release. It had one of the best week-to-week declines in the top ten, but it started slow enough that this won't be enough.

One last note, Chef climbed into the top ten for the first time in its run with $2.27 million / $2.98 million over the weekend. The film is still only place in several hundred theaters and it already has $4.26 million so far. At this pace, it will reach $10 million with relative ease. It might even expand more this coming weekend.


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Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Blended, Chef, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, Neighbors, Million Dollar Arm, X-Men, Godzilla, Adam Sandler