Unsurprisingly, the fourth entry in the series that just won't quit, leapt to the front of the pack this week and pulled off the biggest opening of the year, with just over $100 million from Friday to Sunday. The abysmally reviewed Transformers movie (17% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) got an "A-" Cinemascore from the audience and played to a crowd that was 64% male and also 72% over 18 amusingly, so you can lay the blame for the appeal of this franchise not on kids but on young men who can't get enough incomprehensible, meaningless CG action in their lives (is it a video game kind thing, maybe? I don't know). The movie also brought in a massive haul from overseas, earning $201 million from 37 countries, $90 million in China alone, which happens to be an opening weekend record there. So, don't count on an ending to this series any time soon.
Meanwhile 22 Jump Street came in second for a total of $138 million so far, while How to Train Your Dragon 2 continues to underperform, having earned just $121 million after three weeks in release. Look like the family audience just didn't want to bite on this one, despite the popularity of the first along with stellar reviews. Think Like a Man Too fell to fourth with $10 million over the weekend (a lot of Kevin Hart's movies seem to have big openings with little to no staying power after that), while Maleficent made another $8 million, bringing its total over $200 million domestically, and its global take to an enormous $585 million.
Top 5:
- Transformers: Age of Extinction- $100 million
- 22 Jump Street- $15.4 million
- How to Train Your Dragon 2- $13.1 million
- Think Like a Man Too- $10.4 million
- Maleficent- $8.23 million
In limited release world, the two openers from The Weinstein Company both got off to a strong start this weekend, with Snowpiercer and Begin Again earning a $20k and $29k per screen average, respectively, on just 8 and 5 screens. Begin Again's expanding over the next couple weeks and has a decent shot at becoming a breakout hit with people looking for counter-programming this summer, while hopefully Snowpiercer can earn enough to justify expanding wider, but we'll see. Next week it's the horror movie Deliver Us From Evil and Melissa McCarthy's comedy Tammy, along with the alien flick Earth to Echo and the Roger Ebert documentary Life, Itself in limited release.
