Ant-Man had one more weekend at number one as the latest Adam Sandler movie to flop was Pixels, the dreadfully reviewed, nostalgia bait for Gen X-er's that apparently did not catch on (I guess Generation X isn't as prone to that craze as are millennials at the moment). It came in with $24 million, well under expectations of at least $60, and the weekend in general was kind of blah, as several new releases didn't make a whole lot of noise this week either. Everyone's talking again about the state of Adam Sandler's floundering career but whatever keeps him off movie screens and relegated to Netflix is good news for America if you ask me. The other bomb this week was Paper Towns, which was expected to hit $20 million but came in with $12, not even cracking the top five, which was surprising after last year's hit The Fault in Our Stars debuted with $48 million. I guess John Green isn't the new Nicholas Sparks after all.
Another debut, Southpaw with Jake Gyllenhaal, did open better than expected, coming with $16 million and enough to make the top five, attracting an adult audience crowd that's been starved for entertainment this summer and not going to many of the indie dramas that can sometimes draw their attention. Trainwreck saw a small drop of 43% this week, bringing its total over $60 million and looking like it will probably make over $100 million, which is a great success for Amy Schumer, and Minions came in third for a new total of $222 million.
Top 5:
- Ant-Man- $24.8 million
- Pixels- $24 million
- Minions- $22 million
- Trainwreck- 17.3 million
- Southpaw- $16.5 million
As I've been saying all summer, there's not much going on limited release this year, but Amy is now the highest grossing documentary of 2015, with over $5 million in the bank, while Mr. Holmes still looks strong, making it into the top ten again and passing $6 million, so maybe if that continues it will be the independent success story of the year before Oscar season starts. Next week it's Mission: Impossible time, as the fifth installment in the franchise is getting great reviews (96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes so far) and could maybe break out for its star Tom Cruise the way Ghost Protocol did four years ago. See you then!
