Another new week, another new #1 film. This time it was Matt Damon and director Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi/action film “Elysium” that took the top spot with 30.4 million. The film about a man’s (Damon) mission to a man-made space station where only the wealthy live on, received fairly positive reviews by fans and critics alike and was considered to be on par with Blomkamp’s other sci-fi blockbuster, “District 9”.
While it’s only made a little more than 10 million overseas, and with a budget of 115 million. The competition throughout the month of August is relatively slim (only cult favorites like “Kick Ass 2 and “The World’s End” remain as big hits) It’s quite possible that “Elysium” could be another sleeper blockbuster this summer.
Other debuting films “We’re the Millers”, “Planes” and “Percy Jackson 2” finished this weekend in sequential order. While Millers and Percy Jackson got an early start on the competition, it didn’t seem to help their numbers that much. Although Millers had a reported 37 million dollar budget, so it has already made that back its first weekend. Percy Jackson however had a reported 90 million budget and made less than the original film which opened at 31.2 million and finished with 88.7.
Also, the first film was a huge success overseas and it’ll be likely the foreign numbers will probably propel its sequel to make as much as well. Finally the Disney knock off “Planes” came in at #3 with 22.5 million. The Pixar knockoff/spin off to the “Cars” movies came in at underwhelming numbers and awful reviews this weekend.
I noted before that “Turbo” had the same problems with generating an audience due to the fact that some crowds are getting smarter. They’ve already seen the animated gems of this year (Despicable Me 2, The Croods, and Monster’s U), why waste money on films that may look good, but are still unappealing and predictable to people? Looks as if “Planes” is designated to go the down the same route as “Turbo” and other summer flops.
Last week’s #1 film, “2 Guns” slipped to 5th place with 11.1 million. A nearly 60% drop off from last week. The same with “The Wolverine” which slipped to 7th with another 9.5 million. With 4 out of the top 10 films being in the action genre, this isn’t surprising to see them eating away at each other’s numbers.
I believe it forces audiences to choose instead of the film they want to see, they turn to which actor they would like to see blowing/shooting/beating the crap out of everything they see. All in all, it doesn’t help any film make more money and I believe is reflected poorly on the studios deciding to release these films at this time.
The Conjuring remains on the top 10 this week, bringing in another 6.7 million. Love everything about this. It’s a horror film, made by one of the better directors of the genre today (James Wan), and it’s making a boat load of money during a time where horror films aren’t generally released and aren’t supposed to make this kind of money. I cannot be happier that this is one of the biggest hits of the summer. Who knows, maybe it’ll spark a new trend where horror films are generally released throughout the year.
Also, having “World War Z” come out earlier this summer helped out a lot as well.
“Despicable Me 2” continues to make more money, adding 5.7 to its total. The film continues to rise only having been released about a month ago. It now stands at 26th place in the highest grossing domestic films of all time (other 2013 film, Iron Man 3 is in 14th place at 407.7 M).
Finally, crappy cash grab films like “The Smurfs 2” and “Grown Ups 2” continue to make more money. I should note that even though Smurfs looks to be another flop, its foreign numbers have propelled it to nearly making its budget back, so unfortunately like “Grown Ups” the Smurfs are still profitable in the film world.
Next week brings us a mix of 4 completely different films. First off is “Jobs” a biopic about the life of Apple tycoon Steve Jobs (played by Aston Kutcher). “Kick-Ass 2” the superhero comedy starring Aaron Johnson, Chloe Morez, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Jim Carrey, a sequel to 2010 cult superhero film about regular people becoming superhero’s and fighting other regular people who had become super-villains. “Paranoia” the dramatic/thriller about Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games) being hired by Gary Oldman (Tiptoes) to spy on Harrison Ford (HE’S HARRISON FORD! Look him up!).
Finally, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” the story about notable events of the 20th century that happened in the White House through the eyes of an African-American butler, starring Forest Whitaker and a plethora of big named actors/actresses like Oprah, Terrance Howard, Robin Williams, John Cusack, Leiv Schreiber, and Alan Rickman. Who will take the top spot next week? My money’s on Kick-Ass 2 or The Butler.
Got a comment, question, feel free to post it below.
MOVIE TITLE WEEKEND GROSS TOTAL GROSS (as of 8/11)
1- Elysium 30.4 M 30.4 M
2- We’re The Millers 26.5 M 38 M
3- Planes 22.5 M 22.5 M
4- Percy Jackson 2 14.6 M 23.4 M
5- 2 Guns 11.1 M 48.5 M
6- The Smurfs 2 9.5 M 46.6 M
7- The Wolverine 8 M 111.9 M
8- The Conjuring 6.7 M 120.7 M
9- Despicable Me 2 5.7 M 338.3 M
10- Grown Ups 2 3.7 M 123.8 M