"The Apes" Continue Dominating the Box Office

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: Apes Rules Again
by Ray Subers
July 20, 2014


On strong word-of-mouth, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes held the top spot for the second weekend in a row.

Among the new releases, The Purge: Anarchy put up solid business in second place, while Planes: Fire & Rescue missed the mark and Sex Tape flopped.

The Top 12 earned an estimated $134.5 million this weekend. That's off 26 percent from the same frame last year; overall, July box office is down over 30 percent year-to-year.







Dawn of the Planet of the Apes eased 50 percent to $36 million. In comparison, the other major Summer sequels — The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Transformers: Age of Extinction — all fell at least 61 percent at the same point.

That drop is also roughly on par with Rise of the Planet of the Apes (49 percent).



That strong hold can be attributed to positive reviews and word-of-mouth, and unimpressive competition from this weekend's newcomers.

Overall, the Apes sequel has earned $139 million, and could wind up over $230 million by the end of its run.







The Purge: Anarchy opened in second place with an estimated $28.4 million, which is down 17 percent from the first Purge's $34.1 million debut. That's actually an impressive retention rate, given the fact that the first movie burned out quickly on horrible word-of-mouth.

Chalk this up to a strong marketing effort from Universal that promised The Purge: Anarchy would actually explore what it's like to be stuck outside during the lawless 12-hour period known as "The Purge."



According to Universal, the movie's audience was 52 female and 61 percent under the age of 25. They gave it a solid "B" CinemaScore, which is a major step up from the last movie's "C" score.

Ultimately, The Purge: Anarchy should come close to matching the first movie's $64.5 million total.







Planes: Fire & Rescue took third place with an estimated $18 million. That's off 19 percent from the first Planes, which opened to $22 million last August.

It's also lower than Turbo's $21.3 million start on the same weekend last year (and that was after burning off demand on Wednesday and Thursday).



Drafting off the immensely popular Cars franchise, the first Planes did fine business last year. Less than a year later, Fire & Rescue felt less like a movie set within the world of Cars and more like a direct-to-DVD spin-off (which is what the first Planes was supposed to be).

The movie's disappointing performance is still somewhat surprising, though, given the lack of fresh content for family audiences: as has often been the case this Summer, this result reinforces the notion that filling a quota (in this case, family-friendly entertainment) isn't enough to guarantee attendance.



A whopping 42 percent of the movie's audience was 12 years of age and under.

With an "A" CinemaScore and zero competition for this audience for the remainder of the Summer, expect Fire & Rescue to close with around $70 million.







Sex Tape limped in to fourth place this weekend with a weak $15 million. That's around $10 million lower than Cameron Diaz's The Other Woman ($24.8 million), and is less than half of Bad Teacher's $31.6 million debut.

Compared to Summer 2014 comedies, it also looks pretty poor: it debuted lower than A Million Ways to Die in the West ($16.8 million), and only a bit higher than Adam Sandler's Blended ($14.3 million).



The movie had likeable leads and a solid premise, but advertisements lacked the kind of humor that's needed to open an R-rated comedy. It probably also fell victim to some truly abysmal reviews (around 20 percent on Rotten Tomatoes).

With poor word-of-mouth ("C+" CinemaScore), Sex Tape is going to fall off quickly, and it could wind up earning less than $45 million total.







Transformers: Age of Extinction rounded out the Top Five with $10 million, which is off just 39 percent from last weekend. To date, the fourth installment in the franchise has earned $227.2 million, and will become the biggest movie of the Summer in a matter of days.

Overall, Transformers remains on track for around $250 million total.







Richard Linklater's Boyhood expanded to 33 theaters and earned $1.2 million this weekend. That translates to a fantastic $36,303 per-theater average.

Distributor IFC Films plans to expand the critically-acclaimed movie in to at least 40 more theaters next weekend.







Political thriller Persecuted opened in 736 theaters, but couldn't crack $1 million.

Meanwhile, Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here got off to a slow start with $495,000 from 68 theaters. The writer/director/star's follow-up to Garden State will expand to around 600 theaters next weekend.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3877&p=.htm









July 18-20, 2014 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes $36,000,000 / $138,953,000
2. The Purge: Anarchy $28,369,000
3. Planes: Fire & Rescue $18,000,000
4. Sex Tape $15,000,000
5. Transformers: Age of Extinction $10,000,000 / $227,157,000
6. Tammy $7,605,000 / $71,253,000
7. 22 Jump Street $4,700,000 / $180,509,000
8. How to Train Your Dragon 2 $3,800,000 / $160,672,000
9. Maleficent $3,302,000 / $228,367,000
10. Earth to Echo $3,260,000 / $31,979,000