Disney’s big-budget adventure film Tomorrowland opened at number one, but pulled in unimpressive numbers in the process. The PG-rated sci-fi pic headlined by George Clooney bowed to an estimated $32.2M over three days from 3,972 locations (including 354 IMAX screens) for a $8,096 average. Over the four-day holiday session, the studio is projecting $40.7M in ticket sales which is a troubling start for a tentpole earning a high-profile Memorial Day weekend slot and costing over $180M to produce.
Tomorrowland failed to get its story across in the trailers and TV spots and consumer excitement never was very high. Many reviews were negative for the Brad Bird-directed pic and even those moviegoers who did come out were not very impressed. The film earned a so-so B CinemaScore grade indicating that it is not being recommended with much enthusiasm.
Memorial Day weekend openers often finish up with around two and half times their four-day debuts so Tomorrowland, with no stellar word-of-mouth to benefit from, could end its domestic run in the area of only $100-110M. That will put pressure on international markets to help it break even.
But overseas openings this weekend in 65 territories delivered only $26.7M, led by Russia’s $3.6M, Mexico’s $2.8M, and $2.1M from the U.K. Key markets still to come include Spain, China, Australia and Korea next weekend, followed by Japan and Brazil on the following frame. Many countries have school holidays coming up which Tomorrowland hopes to benefit from, but making this film into a moneymaker will certainly be difficult.
Following its strong number one debut, Pitch Perfect 2 slipped to second place falling by a steep 56% to an estimated $30.3M. The Universal hit has amassed a stellar $117.8M to date giving the studio its third entry this year into the century club after Fifty Shades of Grey and Furious 7 with more brand-based heavyweights like Jurassic World, Ted 2, and Minions coming up this summer. Worldwide, Perfect has grossed $179.5M.
Good word-of-mouth has been helping Mad Max: Fury Road during the week and again over the holiday weekend. The R-rated film dropped a reasonable 47% to an estimated $23.9M in its second round boosting the cume to $87.3M. It was the exact same dip experienced by 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness which also opened on the weekend before the Memorial Day frame on its way to reaching three times its opening weekend figure.
The horror remake Poltergeist attracted a large crowd opening to an estimated $23M over three days for the biggest fright film debut since last October’s Halloween season offerings. The PG-13 film earned lackluster reviews but scored an impressive $7,099 average from 3,240 locations for Fox. The original Poltergeist was a smash hit in 1982 and spawned a pair of sequels.
Oddly enough, this was not the first time the Top 10 has included both Poltergeist and Mad Max films. In June of 1982 when the original supernatural thriller opened, it was joined a few notches below the holdover film The Road Warrior which was the sequel to the first Mad Max.
Crashing the $400M barrier and still in the top five was summer kickoff pic Avengers: Age of Ultron with an estimated $20.9M for a 46% decline. The Disney release upped its North American cume to $404.1M putting it at number 16 on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters bumping down the original Spider-Man from 2002 which had lower ticket prices and no 3D. International grosses swelled to $859.8M putting Ultron at $1.26 billion worldwide making it the second biggest super hero film of all-time after the first Avengers.
Comedy flop Hot Pursuit dropped 39% to an estimated $3.5M for a new cume of just $28.9M for Warner Bros. Fox Searchlight went nationwide with its arthouse pic Far From the Madding Crowd going from 289 to 865 locations and grossed $2.3M with $5.4M overall.
The world’s fourth biggest blockbuster of all time, Furious 7, fell 42% in its eighth weekend in the top ten grossing an estimated $2.1M. Universal has lifted its domestic total to $347M and its global tally to a hair below $1.5 billion. It will cross that mark on Monday or Tuesday bringing, the franchise cume to a staggering $3.9 billion across seven films in 14 years with the next installment on the calendar for April 2017.
Sony’s Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 was off 51% to an estimated $1.8M and has banked $65.1M to date. The hit spring toon Home followed with an estimated $1.7M in its ninth weekend, down 34%, for a new total of $168M.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $141.5M over the Friday-to-Sunday portion of the holiday weekend which was down 19% from last year when X-Men: Days of Future Past opened at number one with $90.8M; and down 43% from 2013 when Fast & Furious 6 debuted in the top spot with $97.4M.
