Marvel's Ant-Man came in at the top of the charts this week, with a $58 million dollar debut, which is good, but not as big as any of Marvel's other films. It's not surprising considering the lesser known property, but it's somewhat close to the debuts of Captain America and Thor, both of which came in in the mid-60's range. Either way, the studio is 12 for 12 in terms of their films opening in first place at the box office, which is quite remarkable. The weekend's other new release, Trainwreck, came in third place after Minions, but with a very impressive $30 million, which serves as a nice big welcome to Hollywood for Amy Schumer, who I guess I underestimated the appeal of. It was well-reviewed and is director Judd Apatow's biggest opening since 2007's Knocked Up, and is in fact in line with the opening of Melissa McCarthy's Spy, which has earned over $100 million. This could well duplicate that film's success, which would be incredibly strong for a romantic comedy, a genre that's been just starved for a the box office in recent years.
Last week's champ Minions took in another $50 million, which is a fairly steep 57% fall from last weekend, while Inside Out stayed just a nudge ahead of Jurassic World for fourth place, crossing $300 million total for Pixar. Meanwhile, Jurassic World has now crossed the $600 million milestone, making it only the fourth film in history to earn that much money domestically. I still don't know how it happened, but it's going to be interesting to see if Star Wars can duplicate those numbers come Christmastime.
Top 5:
- Ant-Man- $58 million
- Minions- $50 million
- Trainwreck- $30 million
- Inside Out- $11.6 million
- Jurassic World- $11.4 million
In limited release, we finally have a story worth commenting on, as Ian McKellan's Mr. Holmes debuted with a fantastic $2.4 million, managing to crack the top ten from just 363 theaters. I suppose it's not surprising that Sir Ian could attract older audiences playing a 99-year-old version of Sherlock Holmes- perhaps he can turn that success into potential Best Actor Oscar buzz at year's end as well. Next week it's Pixels versus Paper Towns for the new releases, both of which are expected to do very well, so we'll see what happens then. See you later everyone!
