As compared to last year, box office ticket sales are down a whopping 20%. But, it's not all bad. 20th Century Fox has reason to cheer. Their new film,
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, is having a larger-than-expected opening weekend. Weeks before it opened analysts expected it to open around $68M, and based on Friday's number that seemed to be accurate, but Saturday results were only down 9%. That means Matt Reeves' film is now on pace for
$72M to $74M. It also means it will outperform 2011's
Rise of the Planet of the Apes opening weekend numbers by around $20M ($54.8M).
"Meanwhile, the Michael Bay franchise Transformers: Age of Extinction reached the $200M threshold today for Paramount Pictures after its third week in release. It rode through the July 4th holiday well and obviously lost a lot of ground this weekend to Apes. It was down about 53% from last Friday which was the Fourth of July and is likely to drop about 55% from last weekend. So $6.7M today and $16.7M for the three day to raise its cume to $209.2M." - Deadline
1). Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (FOX), 3,967 theaters / $27.8M Friday
3-day cume: $70M+ / Wk 1
2). Transformers: Age of Extinction (PAR), 3,913 theaters (-320) / $4.9M Fri. (-58%)
3-day est. cume: $16M to $17M+ (-55%) / Total est. cume: $208.5M / Wk 3
3). Tammy (WB), 3,465 theaters (0) / $4M Fri.
3-day cume: $12.8M to $13.1M (-39%) / Total cume: $57.4M / Wk 2
4). 22 Jump Street (SONY), 2,811 theaters (-513) / $2M Fri.
3-day cume: $6.27M (-44%)/ Total cume: $171.4M / Wk 5
5/6). Earth to Echo (REL), 3,230 theaters (0) / $1.75M Fri.
3-day cume: $5.75M (-30%) / Total cume: $24.7M / Wk 2
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (FOX), 2,885 theaters (-412) / $1.76M Fri.
3-day cume: $5.68M / Total cume: $151.85M (-37%) / Wk 5
7). Deliver Us From Evil (SONY), 3,049 theaters (0) / $1.56M Fri.
3-day cume: $4.8M (-50%) / Total cume: $25.1M / Wk 2
8). Maleficent (DIS), 2,077 theaters (-312) / $1.2M Fri. /
3-day cume: $4M (-34%) / Total cume: $221.85M / Wk 7
9). Begin Again (TWC), 939 theaters (+764) / $825K Fri.
3-day cume: $2.98M (+138%) / Per screen: $3,180 / Total cume: $5.3M / Wk 3
10). Jersey Boys (WB) 1,968 theaters (-662) / $709K Fri.
3-day cume: $2.4M (-53%) / Total cume: $41.6M / Wk 4