Weekend Wrap-Up: Jurassic World Maintains Record-Breaking Run

June 23, 2015

Jurassic World

It looks like Jurassic World is on pace to top The Avengers to become the biggest movie ever, not directed by a Canadian. It earned over $100 million at the weekend and has already passed $400 million. Meanwhile, Inside Out had the second-best opening for a Pixar film. It was a great weekend at the box office and we really needed it. The overall box office was down 9.5% from last weekend, but it was still at $248 million, which is the ninth-biggest combined weekend box office. Compared to last year, the box office was 70% higher this year. Year-to-date, 2015 has pulled in $5.08 billion, which is 5.2% or $250 million over 2014's pace.

Films that have blockbuster openings tend to have steep collapses: because so many people saw it opening weekend, the target audience the next weekend is just so much smaller. However, Jurassic World fell less than 50% during its second weekend of release to earn $106.59 million over the weekend for a total of $402.80 million. At this pace, getting to $600 million is almost a given. It also has a real shot at topping The Avengers and earn third place on the All-Time Domestic Chart. It might even top Titanic before its run is over. I don't think there's anyone out there that thought that would happen when this film was first given the greenlight. On the other hand, in retrospect, it isn't that bizarre that it might happen. Remember, the first film in this franchise did break box office records when it first came out.

Inside Out also topped expectations with $90.44 million during its first weekend of release. This is the second-biggest debut in Pixar's history and the fourth-biggest opening of the year. It is a great start, but its legs could be even better, given Pixar's track record. A film's multiplier is defined as its total box office divided by its opening weekend. Some genres have shorter legs, like horror films, which many times have multipliers less than 2.0. But Inside Out is a family film and these tend to have much better legs and Pixar films tend to perform even better than the average family film. Anything below 3.0 would be a shock, meaning that the low end for the film is close to $300 million with $350 million not out of the question. The film's amazing reviews and lack of direct competition until Minions comes out in July will help.

Spy! continues to have strong legs ,dropping just 28% to $11.23 million over the weekend for a total of $75.10 million after three weeks of release. This puts the film on pace for $100 million and if it gets to the century mark, it will solidify Melissa McCarthy / Paul Feig as one of the most consistent comedy star / director tandems working today.

San Andreas slipped a spot to fourth with $8.71 million over the weekend for a total of $132.70 million after four weeks of release. The film will start losing theaters at an accelerated pace, but it should still get to $150 million by the end of its domestic run. I'm sure someone's trying to figure out how to turn this film into a franchise.

The final new wide release of the weekend was Dope, which landed in fifth place with $6.10 million over the weekend. Granted, it was only playing in just over 2,000 theaters, for an average of barely more than $3,000. On the one hand, its excellent reviews suggest good legs. On the other hand, its per theater average isn't great, so theater owners won't want to keep it around for long.


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Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Jurassic World, Inside Out, Spy!, San Andreas, Dope, Jurassic Park, Melissa McCarthy, Paul Feig