Weekend Wrap-Up: Jurassic World Chews Up the Record Book
June 16, 2015
After disappointing weekend after disappointing weekend, I had become pessimistic about any film's chances of being a breakout success this summer. Jurassic World changed that. The film didn't just top expectations, it broke all-time records. Over the weekend, the film pulled in $208.81 million. That is the record for biggest single weekend and it helped take the overall weekend box office to an all-time high with $273.67 million. This is 106% more than last weekend; that's right, the weekend box office was more than double last week's result. Additionally, and more importantly, it was 46% higher than the same weekend last year. Jurassic World itself earned 12% more than all films combined this weekend last year.
Jurassic World’s $208.81 million opening was more than some people thought it would earn in total. It is certainly more than I thought it would open with. In my defense, no one saw this coming. Delayed sequels tend to have difficulties at the box office when compared to its previous installments. Additionally, the Jurassic Park franchise has shown a serious decline at the box office from the first to third films. Finally, the reviews were nowhere near as strong as the first film's were. But fortunately, none of that mattered as the film absolutely destroyed expectations and ended up with a record-breaking debut. Where does it go from here? I'm not even going to guess, at least until Friday's box office prediction column. However, given its start, if it isn't at least a competitor for biggest hit of the year, something terrible has gone wrong.
Despite the competition, Spy! held on better than expected with $15.61 million over the weekend for a total of $56.55 million. At this rate, the film should get to $90 million, maybe a little more. If it can get past $95 million and still be in semi-wide release, then the studio might give it a push to get over the $100 million mark.
San Andreas fell to $10.81 million over the weekend for a total of $119.12 million after three weeks of release. This is more than it cost to make, so it only needed to match its domestic number internationally to break even sometime during its home market run. However, it has already performed better internationally than it has domestically, so there's a chance it has already broken even.
Insidious Chapter 3 fell 68% to $7.31 million over the weekend for a total of $37.38 million after two. Horror films rarely do exceptionally well when it comes to legs, so this isn't entirely unexpected. It does mean the film will struggle to get to $50 million in the end, so I doubt the studio will be rushing to make another installment in the franchise, not unless that installment goes Direct-to-Video.
Pitch Perfect 2 dipped just 16% and rose to 5th place on the chart in the process. It earned $6.40 million over the weekend for a total of $171.11 million after a month of release. It is going to start losing theaters at an accelerated pace, but the film has already broken even just on its domestic run and it should be one of the biggest hits on the home market this year.
Entourage was a Wednesday opening and that usually means a better than average decline during its sophomore stint. However, it fell 59% to just $4.19 million over the weekend for a total of $25.71 million after twelve days of release. The film cost $30 million to make, so unless it is a bigger-than-expected hit internationally or on the home market, it won't break even any time soon.
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Jurassic World, Entourage, Spy!, Insidious Chapter 3, San Andreas, Pitch Perfect 2, Jurassic Park, Insidious