A massive weekend at the box office for the top two movies, as Jurassic World came off its massive $200 million opener last weekend for a $102 million second week, while Inside Out had to settle for "only" a $91 million opening, which is the more important news here, because that's a stunning number. Yes, it breaks Pixar's streak of #1 openings, but a $90 million opening weekend for an original movie (not a sequel in a franchise) sets the all time record, shattering Avatar's $77 million bow back in 2009. Pixar should be thrilled, as the film earned absolute rave reviews on top of it (98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), so I'm sure this is the first Oscar winner of the year, having locked up that Animated Feature trophy early. The question is if it could maybe get into Best Picture consideration, which no animated film has managed since the Academy had a flat ten nominees in 2010.
It's also the second biggest opening in Pixar's history, after Toy Story 3's $110 million debut six years ago. But Jurassic World has now amassed $398 million domestically, which means it's on track to finish well ahead of The Avengers to become the biggest movie of the year, and now I honestly wonder if anything else will top it in 2015. All eyes have been on Star Wars for that in December, but I'm not so sure it's a guarantee, given the traditional box office pattern differences between summer and holiday movies. It would have to play like an Avatar or Titanic to pull that off- we'll see if it can. Jurassic is also set to become the fastest movie to hit $1 billion worldwide in just a few days. The rest of the top five was rounded out by Spy, San Andreas, and the new Sundance opener Dope, which pulled in just $6 million on an odd decision to put it in wide release.
Top 5:
- Jurassic World- $102 million
- Inside Out- $91 million
- Spy- $10.5 million
- San Andreas- $8.2 million
- Dope- $6 million
In limited release, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl continues to disappoint, with a struggling platform release, while Love & Mercy has pulled in $7 million so far and looks healthy as it expands. Overall it's been a somewhat disappointing year for specialty releases, with only Ex Machina (set to cross $25 million soon) as the most successful run of the arthouse films so far, and the only one to get over $12 million. Next week it's Seth MacFarlane's Ted 2, which will no doubt be a hit, as the wildly popular first one grossed over $200 million a few years ago. See you then!
