"The Fault in our Stars" Debuts Big while Tom Cruise Underperforms

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: Stars Align for Fault, Cruise Misses with Edge
by Ray Subers
June 8, 2014


Young women turned out in droves this weekend to see teen romance The Fault in our Stars, which easily took the top spot with over $48 million.

Meanwhile, Edge of Tomorrow was unable to convert strong reviews in to a successful debut.







The Fault in our Stars opened noticeably higher than past romantic hits The Vow ($41.2 million) and Dear John ($30.5 million). Despite doing more business on Friday, though, Fault wound up lower than star Shailene Woodley's Divergent ($54 million) for the full weekend.

With over 10 million copies in print, John Green's The Fault in our Stars is one of the most popular books in recent memory. Fans of the book were enamored with the movie's trailer, which appeared to accurately portray the story of two cancer-stricken teens falling in love.

From there, distributor 20th Century Fox mobilized those fans with a targeted marketing strategy that focused heavily on social media outreach.



The movie's audience was made up almost entirely of young women: according to Fox, it was 82 percent female and 79 percent under the age of 25. They rushed out to see the movie on Thursday night ("The Night Before Our Stars" event played a part here) and Friday, which resulted in an incredible $26.2 million haul that day.

Unfortunately, business dropped off precipitously from there: the 52 percent Friday-to-Saturday dip is one of the steepest ever.



Ultimately, Friday box office wound up accounting for 54 percent of the total weekend gross, which makes this one of the most front-loaded openings on record (more so than any of the Twilight movies).

Even with strong word-of-mouth ("A" CinemaScore), it's likely that Fault continues a steady decline from here: it should wind up over $100 million, but not by much.







In second place, Maleficent fell 52 percent to an estimated $33.5 million. That's a solid hold for a Summer release: in comparison, Show White and the Huntsman dropped 59 percent on the same weekend in 2012.

To date, Maleficent has earned $127.4 million, and now appears on track to close around $200 million.







Edge of Tomorrow took third place with an estimated $29.1 million. That's on par with recent sci-fi movies like Elysium ($29.8 million) and John Carter ($30.2 million), which is surely lower than Warner Bros. was hoping for this mega-budget movie.

It's also noticeably lower than last year's Oblivion (also starring Tom Cruise) and Pacific Rim, both of which opened north of $37 million.



While critics have been praising the movie's originality, marketing wasn't really able to convey that point to average moviegoers. On a large scale, this looked like just another effects-heavy alien invasion movie, the likes of which arrive in theaters a few times a year.

Audiences also had a bit of deja vu thanks to Cruise's presence here, as the movie's visuals seemed too close to last year's Oblivion. Finally, last year's Elysium beat Edge of Tomorrow to the punch with mechanical exoskeletons.

On the surface, at least, Edge felt about as redundant as it gets.



According to Warner Bros., Edge's audience was 61 percent male and 73 percent over the age of 25. Showings in 3D accounted for 47 percent of ticket sales, while IMAX delivered $4.2 million.

Critics dug the movie (89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but moviegoers were less enthralled: they awarded it a so-so "B+" CinemaScore. The movie may still hold up well, but it will be a big surprise if it comes anywhere close to $100 million.








X-Men: Days of Future Past had another steep drop this weekend. The superhero sequel fell 55 percent to $14.7 million, which brings its 17-day total to $189.1 million.

Ultimately, the seventh X-Men movie should wind up around $220 million total.







Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West rounded out the Top Five with $7.2 million. That's down 57 percent, which is a horrible drop for a comedy.

So far, the movie has earned $30.1 million, and it no longer has a shot of reaching $50 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3855&p=.htm









June 6-8, 2014 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. The Fault in our Stars $48,200,000
2. Maleficent $33,523,000 / $127,370,000
3. Edge of Tomorrow $29,105,000
4. X-Men: Days of Future Past $14,700,000 / $189,101,000
5. A Million Ways to Die in the West $7,189,000 / $30,088,000
6. Godzilla $5,950,000 / $185,043,000
7. Neighbors $5,201,000 / $137,801,000
8. Blended $4,050,000 / $36,509,000
9. Chef $2,600,000 / $10,362,000
10. Million Dollar Arm $1,822,000 / $31,347,000

[comedyfreak]

I decided to skip Edge of Tomorrow cause it seems so confusing all the do-overs.