By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
The earth moved but there was no fault line for San Andreas as it buried the competition in the rubble with an estimated $53 million debut. The other national newcomer Aloha lei-ed an egg with a $9.8 million opening.
Revenues for the frame came up just shy of $140 million and taking a 12% dip from last weekend’s 3-day portion of the Memorial holiday. It sank a further 18% from 2014 when the bow of Maleficent led with $69.4 million and A Million Ways to Die in the West trailed with $16.8 million.
Holidays in India saw a handful of new releases including good openings for Masss of $267,000 and a $126,000 bow for Gadaar – The Traitor. In general the wave of new product blunted individual film’s grossing potential. Exclusive newcomers saw only American indies Results and Heaven Knows What displaying encouraging openings.
Reviewers delighted in the scientific anomalies of the trembler San Andreas. However, audiences were taken with the yarn of a supe quake that tracking reports had suggested would open between $40-44 million. Ironically it performed strongest on the U.S. West Coast where it’s set with 19 or the top 20 best engagements.
Studio exit demos identified the opening audience as 51% female with 70% of viewers aged 25-years and older. The potency of the debut was also credited to headliner Dwayne Johnson who scored 38% as the prime reason for seeing the picture among attendees. The subject matter was close behind at 37%.
San Andreas also bowed day-and-date in 60 international climes where it generated about $40 million. Mexico, Russia and UK were among the top markets with China and South Korea set to open next weekend and Japan to face the aftershock next month.
Aloha, conversely, bowed to the short goodbye. It never overcame the bad word from leaked emails that surfaced from the Sony hack. Reviews ranged from the apologetic to dire; tracking reports tagged its commercial prospects at between $10-12 million.
Those that decided to hang ($)10 or more were 64% female with 57% aged 30-years old and above.
| Weekend (estimates) May 29 – 31, 2015 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change * | Theaters | Cume |
| San Andreas | WB | 53.0 (14,030) | NEW | 3777 | 53 |
| Pitch Perfect 2 | Uni | 14.8 (4,040) | -52% | 3660 | 147.5 |
| Tomorrowland | BV | 13.8 (3,480) | -58% | 3972 | 63.2 |
| Mad Max: Fury Road | WB | 13.6 (4,170) | -45% | 3255 | 115.9 |
| Avengers: Age of Ultron | BV | 10.9 (3,380) | -50% | 3228 | 427.1 |
| Aloha | Sony | 9.8 (3,470) | NEW | 2815 | 9.8 |
| Poltergeist | Fox | 7.8 (2,400) | -66% | 3242 | 38.2 |
| Far From the Madding Crowd | Searchlight | 1.4 (1,600) | -37% | 902 | 8.4 |
| Hot Pursuit | WB | 1.4 (940) | -62% | 1446 | 32.3 |
| Home | Fox | 1.2 (1,080) | -33% | 1088 | 170.4 |
| Furious 7 | Uni | 1.0 (1,020) | -57% | 963 | 349.2 |
| Ex Machina | A24/Mongrel | .76 (1,970) | -46% | 506 | 23.6 |
| Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 | Sony | .74 (900) | -60% | 823 | 67.7 |
| Tanu Weds Manu Returns | Eros | .73 (5,370) | -27% | 136 | 2.3 |
| The Age of Adaline | Lionsgate | .56 (780) | -63% | 713 | 41.4 |
| I’ll See You in My Dreams | Bleecker Street | .51 (6,020) | 76% | 85 | 1 |
| Woman in Gold | Weinstein Co. | .46 (990) | -48% | 464 | 31.4 |
| Masss/Rakshsudu | MM Media | .27 (2,360) | NEW | 113 | 0.27 |
| Get Hard | WB | .26 (760) | -8% | 303 | 89.7 |
| Cinderella | BV | .25 (1,020) | -39% | 249 | 198.4 |
| The Longest Ride | Fox | .15 (640) | -47% | 230 | 37.1 |
| Insurgent | Lionsgate | .14 (700) | -45% | 197 | 128.9 |
| Piku | Yash Raj | .13 (1,930) | -72% | 68 | 2.6 |
| Gadaar – The Traitor | Viva | .13 (3,610) | NEW | 35 | 0.13 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $132.00 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -18% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -12% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Iris | Magnolia | .12 (1,430) | -20% | 82 | 0.86 |
| The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed … | Music Box | .11 (1,640) | -10% | 66 | 0.43 |
| Pandaga Chesko | Great India | .11 (1,320) | 84 | 0.11 | |
| 5 Flights Up | Focus | 65,200 (820) | -50% | 71 | 0.86 |
| Saint Laurent | Sony Classics | 37,800 (1,020) | -50% | 37 | 0.28 |
| When Marnie Was There | Gkids | 32,400 (3,600) | -13% | 9 | 0.08 |
| Welcome 2 Karachi | Big Pictures | 27,700 (750) | 37 | 0.03 | |
| Gemme Bovary | Music Box | 18,500 (3,700) | 5 | 0.02 | |
| Results | Magnolia | 17,400 (5,800) | 3 | 0.02 | |
| Heaven Knows What | Weinstein Co. | 14,700 (7,350) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Survivor | Alchemy | 10,300 (860) | 12 | 0.01 | |
| I Believe in Unicorns | Gravitas | 3,600 (3,600) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – May 28, 2015) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| Buena Vista (10) | 819.7 | 19.40% | |||
| Universal (11) | 796.2 | 18.90% | |||
| Warner Bros. (14) | 781.8 | 18.50% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (13) | 529.7 | 12.60% | |||
| Paramount (7) | 276.7 | 6.60% | |||
| Lionsgate (8) | 210.1 | 5.00% | |||
| Sony (7) | 195.7 | 4.60% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (10) | 190.5 | 4.50% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (5) | 80.8 | 1.90% | |||
| Relativity (6) | 71.7 | 1.70% | |||
| Sony Classics (11) | 41.9 | 1.00% | |||
| CBS (1) | 34.1 | 0.80% | |||
| A24 (3) | 33.8 | 0.80% | |||
| Open Road (4) | 22.5 | 0.50% | |||
| Other * (168) | 136.4 | 3.20% | |||
| 4221.6 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
| Top Domestic Grossers (January 1 – May 28, 2015) | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
| Avengers: Age of Ultron | BV | 416,150,025 | |||
| Amerian Sniper * | WB | 348,643,809 | |||
| Furious 7 | Uni | 348,243,950 | |||
| Cinderella | BV | 198,107,845 | |||
| Home | Fox | 169,258,530 | |||
| Fifty Shades of Grey | Uni | 166,248,790 | |||
| SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water | Par | 162,994,032 | |||
| Pitch Perfect 2 | Uni | 132,698,720 | |||
| Insurgent | Lionsgate | 128,796,648 | |||
| Kingsman: The Secret Service | Fox | 127,912,738 | |||
| Mad Max: Fury Road | WB | 102,289,534 | |||
| Get Hard | WB | 89,431,858 | |||
| Taken 3 | Fox | 89,256,424 | |||
| Paddington | Weinstein Co. | 76,074,410 | |||
| The Imitation Game * | Weinstein/Elevation | 71,189,164 | |||
| Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 | Sony | 66,931,656 | |||
| The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies * | WB | 65,570,462 | |||
| The Wedding Ringer | Sony | 64,587,373 | |||
| Into the Woods * | BV | 63,940,268 | |||
| Focus | WB | 53,980,127 | |||
| * does not include 2014 box office | |||||
