The 4th of July normally provides for a strong box office week, but not so this year, as it ended up the weakest holiday for movies in at least 15 years. Transformers came in at No. 1 again, with $36 million over the weekend, but fell a steep 63% from last week, and will undoubtedly turn out to be the lowest grossing film in the series (at least domestically- worldwide it's already made $400 million). It'll pass $200 million in the U.S., but not much more than that, so maybe there's hope for humanity after all. In second place was the Melissa McCarthy vehicle Tammy, which got extremely poor reviews (23% Rotten Tomatoes score) and a terrible "C+" Cinemascore, which likely means it'll be on its way out in just a few weeks, although it didn't do that badly, bringing in $21 million over the weekend and $32 million over the five day frame, almost enough to beat Transformers. You can thank Melissa McCarthy's star power for that, even though it did fail to live up to the studio's higher expectations.
The horror film Deliver Us From Evil landed at No. 3, earning just $9.5 million, while 22 Jump Street and How to Train Your Dragon 2 filled out the rest of the top five, bringing their respective totals to $158 million and $140 million each. Meanwhile, Maleficent's legs remain strong, having now made $213 million total, and will probably pass X-Men: Days of Future Past soon, and Edge of Tomorrow crossed $90 million, perhaps slowly making its way over that $100 million threshold.
Top 5:
- Transformers: Age of Extinction- $36.4 million
- Tammy- $21.2 million
- Deliver Us From Evil- $9.5 million
- 22 Jump Street- $9.4 million
- How to Train Your Dragon 2- $8.75 million
In limited release things looked a bit rosier, especially for Weinstein Company films, as Begin Again expanded to 175 screens and earned $1.3 million, bringing its total to $1.8 million and showing real strength as it received an "A-" Cinemascore and will expand even further to 800 screens next week. Snowpiercer didn't do as well in 242 theaters, making just under $1 million, but it's still decent for an unusual film that was barely promoted by its distributor. And Jon Favreau's Chef continues to coast, now having made over $22 million and on its way to $30, despite losing screens in its third month of release. Next week should be bigger, as the spectacularly reviewed Dawn of the Planet of the Apes comes out, along with Richard Linklater's long-awaited Boyhood in limited release, the start of a slate of several buzzed about indie films that will be trickling out for the rest of the summer.
