"The Maze Runner" Closes out Summer 2014 Box Office w/ Strong Debut

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: Maze Runner Franchise Off to Strong Start
by Ray Subers
September 21, 2014


The Maze Runner sprinted to the front of the pack with one of the biggest September debuts ever; add in strong international sales, and a new young-adult franchise was born this weekend.

Meanwhile, A Walk Among the Tombstones and This is Where I Leave You fell short of modest expectations.





Playing at 3,604 theaters, The Maze Runner opened to an estimated $32.5 million this weekend. That's nowhere close to Divergent, though it is bigger than Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief ($31.2 million) and Ender's Game ($27 million).

What separates The Maze Runner from those comparisons is its relatively modest budget — it cost just $34 million, or less than half of those movies — and its strong international prospects.



As is always the case with young-adult adaptations, The Maze Runner's success can be attributed in part to the strong fanbase that's developed around author James Dashner's book series.

Of course, an existing fanbase couldn't save Beautiful Creatures, I am Number Four, The Host, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and many more young-adult flops.



In contrast to those movies, though, The Maze Runner had a marketing campaign that created broad interest outside of diehard "Gladers."

Advertisements split time between outlining the movie's premise and showing off its thrilling action; thanks to the action in particular, opening weekend attendance skewed more male (49 percent) than usual for the young-adult genre.



The Maze Runner's audience also skewed much younger (64 percent below 25 years of age), which tends to translate in to steep drops in subsequent weeks.

Moviegoers did award it a solid "A-" CinemaScore, which suggests word-of-mouth will be good. If The Maze Runner follows Divergent's pattern, it will wrap up with nearly $90 million.



Regardless of how it holds up, though, 20th Century Fox seems bullish about its franchise potential: they're aggressively moving forward with The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, and announced a September 18th, 2015 release date this morning.

It's worth quickly noting that this is the latest success in a year that's been full of them for 20th Century Fox. The studio currently ranks first this year in total grosses with nearly $1.3 billion, and will likely finish the year on top thanks to a slew of appealing upcoming releases like Gone Girl, The Penguins of Madagascar and Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Fox International has also had an excellent year so far: their Top Five movies have now earned nearly $2 billion overseas.








Liam Neeson's A Walk Among the Tombstones took second place with $13.1 million. That's over 50 percent lower than Non-Stop's $28.9 million debut earlier this year.

Of course, that's not an entirely fair comparison: Non-Stop was a high-concept thriller rated PG-13, while A Walk Among the Tombstones is a grim R-rated crime drama.



Still, The Grey was a similarly low-key R-rated movie that managed to open close to $20 million back in 2012. The difference is that The Grey's marketing had a hook — Neeson facing down a pack of wolves — whereas Tombstones never looked like anything but a generic crime movie.

The audience was split evenly between men and women (51 percent), and skewed much older (77 percent over the age of 25. A weak "B-" CinemaScore suggests mixed word-of-mouth, and direct competition from The Equalizer and Gone Girl should cause this to fall off quickly.

A final total below $40 million is likely.







In third place, This is Where I Leave You opened to an estimated $11.9 million. While that's not a terrible debut, it isn't a particularly good one, either.

Marketing sold the movie mainly on its cast — which included Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Jane Fonda and more — though that only goes so far.



Previews also had a strange mix of comedy and drama that never quite jived, and poor reviews (43 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) surely didn't help.

The movie's audience was 63 percent female and 86 percent over the age of 25. It received a solid "B+" CinemaScore. With an older audience, it should hold up decently in the next few weeks: in the long run, it could earn anywhere from $30 to $40 million.







After opening in first place last weekend, No Good Deed plummeted 58 percent to an estimated $10.2 million.

Through 10 days, the home invasion thriller has grossed $40.1 million.







Dolphin Tale 2 fell 43 percent to an estimated $9 million. In comparison, the first Dolphin Tale was only off 27 percent at the same point.

To date, Dolphin Tale 2 has earned $27.1 million ($10 million less than the first movie).







In sixth place, Guardians of the Galaxy eased 36 percent to $5.2 million. On Sunday, it passed Iron Man 2 to become the fourth-highest-grossing movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (behind The Avengers, Iron Man 3 and Iron Man).

Guardians has now banked $313.7 million at the domestic box office, and is on track to finish with around $330 million.







Opening at 602 theaters, writer/director Kevin Smith's Tusk bombed with just $886,000.

This is the type of genre movie that thrives in the post-theatrical market (cable, VOD, Netflix, etc.), though that still doesn't excuse less than $1 million from a nationwide release.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3910&p=.htm









September 19-21, 2014 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. The Maze Runner $32,500,000
2. A Walk Among the Tombstones $13,126,000
3. This is Where I Leave You $11,860,000
4. No Good Deed $10,200,000 / $40,110,000
5. Dolphin Tale 2 $9,005,000 / $27,070,000
6. Guardians of the Galaxy $5,180,000 / $313,669,000
7. Let's Be Cops $2,675,000 / $77,196,000
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles $2,650,000 / $185,018,000
9. The Drop $2,050,000 / $7,690,000
10. If I Stay $1,835,000 / $47,672,000

[Tubehead]

I never read the book I enjoyed the movie. It kind of reminded me of the hunger games

[irehtman]

The Giver had mixed reviews, but they are filming a sequel.

I understand why both The Host and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones got bad reviews, but it is already solved, so they both have sequels in development and production right now still.

A walk of the tombstones was kind of off-balanced on the killing side, but needs to be relaxed ahead of time.

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by irehtman

The Giver had mixed reviews, but they are filming a sequel.

I understand why both The Host and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones got bad reviews, but it is already solved, so they both have sequels in development and production right now still.

Look, it's ok to wish for sequels but you can't be saying that "they are filming" or "in production now" when they are not.

There is currently no active work on sequels to The Giver, The Host and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

However, the recently released The Maze Runner has a sequel locked in for Sept. 18, 2015 as officially announced by Fox.

[irehtman]

The Host gave up the sequel recently, but The Giver and The Mortal Instruments are in development of their sequels now.

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by irehtman

The Host gave up the sequel recently, but The Giver and The Mortal Instruments are in development of their sequels now.

Show me the proof, please. Have the studios officially announced them?

I'm still waiting for your link from the first time you mentioned The Mortal Instruments sequel...

[irehtman]

I will, but just hang on JamesG, I'll let you know what are the current statuses of each movie, so do not rush asking more questions from me right now.

I know in quora, some fan of mortal instruments they are looking for a new actor to play clarissa's brother right now.

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by irehtman

I will, but just hang on JamesG, I'll let you know what are the current statuses of each movie, so do not rush asking more questions from me right now.

I know in quora, some fan of mortal instruments they are looking for a new actor to play clarissa's brother right now.

I'm sorry, but I can't have someone going around saying things that aren't true.

Please show me links saying that the sequels you mentioned are "in production" or "in development" as you say.

If you cannot do so, I ask that you please stop w/ this.