By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
War Room inspired and denied Straight Outta Compton a fourth week at the top of the charts as they respectively grossed $9.4 million and $8.8 million for the three-day portion of the Labor holiday frame. (All grosses reflect 3-day weekend; a chart update will appear Monday.)
The grumpy old trampers of A Walk in the Woods weathered well in third with $8.1 million while Transporter Refueled ran on an only partially-filled tank with $7.1 million. In limited wide the Mexican animated Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos proved unexpectedly potent with an eggcellent $3.5 million from 395 cocinas.
In the niches, a handful of new Indian films opened to coincide with holidays, with top results for Hindi Welcome Back at $659,000 and Telugu Bhale Bhale Magadivoi at $636,000. Exclusives were bland save for single screen of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution with a $19,200 call to action.
Session box office was roughly $90 million, a 3% rise from seven days back, but a 19% tumble from 2014.
Preliminary box office for summer 2015 should wind up at about $4.3 billion, a 8.5% improvement from last year but lagging 6% behind the 2013 final gross. It was a very good season for Universal and Buena Vista, with respective market shares of 36% and 21% with Warner the only other distrib with double digits at 15%. A surprisingly strong showing from Indian imports will likely represent close to 1% of the total.
Mature-targeted A Walk in the Woods proved vibrant despite withering response from major critics while The Transporter Refueled performed close to anticipated. With Venice and Telluride underway and Toronto on the horizon we can all buckle down for what’s in store through the end of the year.
| Weekend (estimates) September 4 – 6, 2015 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change * | Theaters | Cume |
| War Room | Sony | 9.4 (6,140) | -17% | 1526 | 24.7 |
| Straight Outta Compton | Uni | 8.8 (2,850) | -33% | 3094 | 147.8 |
| A Walk in the Woods | Broad Green | 8.1 (4,140) | NEW | 1960 | 10.2 |
| Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation | Par | 7.2 (2,520) | -12% | 2849 | 180.4 |
| The Transporter Refueled | EuropaCorp | 7.1 (2,040) | NEW | 3494 | 7.1 |
| No Escape | Weinstein | 5.3 (1,560) | -34% | 3415 | 18.3 |
| The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | WB | 3.4 (1,630) | -23% | 2102 | 39.4 |
| Sinister 2 | Focus | 3.4 (1,280) | -27% | 2651 | 23.7 |
| Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos | Lionsgate | 3.5 (8,780) | NEW | 395 | 3.5 |
| Inside Out | BV | 3.2 (1,070) | 134% | 2967 | 348.2 |
| Ant-Man | BV | 2.9 (1,900) | -5% | 1527 | 173.2 |
| Minions | Uni | 2.7 (1.400) | -5% | 1927 | 328.6 |
| Jurassic World | Uni | 2.6 (1,640) | -14% | 1571 | 646.6 |
| The Gift | STX | 2.5 (1,590) | -15% | 1591 | 39.6 |
| Hitman: Agent 47 | Fox | 2.2 (1,000) | -48% | 2191 | 19.7 |
| Pixels | Sony | 1.9 (1,320) | 22% | 1420 | 73.3 |
| Trainwreck | Uni | 1.4 (1,780) | -14% | 808 | 107.1 |
| American Ultra | Lionsgate | 1.2 (700) | -57% | 1729 | 13 |
| Fantastic Four | Fox | 1.1 (1,010) | -36% | 1135 | 54.5 |
| Vacation | WB | 1.1 (1,090) | -30% | 1045 | 56.6 |
| Ricki and the Flash | Sony | 1.0 (800) | -40% | 1274 | 25.3 |
| Southpaw | Weinstein | 1.0 (670) | 11% | 1444 | 51 |
| Shaun the Sheep | Lionsgate | .87 (770) | -20% | 1134 | 17.7 |
| Welcome Back | Eros | .66 (4,880) | NEW | 135 | 0.66 |
| Bhale Bhale Magadivoi | CineGalaxy | .64 (5,580) | NEW | 114 | 0.71 |
| We Are Your Friends | WB | .62 (270) | -65% | 2333 | 3.1 |
| Mistress America | Searchlight | .61 (1,190) | 44% | 512 | 1.7 |
| Grandma | Sony Classics | .48 (9,450) | 66% | 51 | 1.1 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $84.40 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -19% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | 3% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Learning to Drive | Broad Green | .36 (4,330) | 194% | 84 | 0.63 |
| Mr. Holmes | Roadside | .34 (990) | -27% | 346 | 16.6 |
| Phoenix | IFC | .32 (1,730) | -10% | 186 | 2 |
| Meru | Music Box | .31 (2,570) | 15% | 121 | 1.1 |
| The Diary of a Teenage Girl | Sony Classics | .15 (5800) | -63% | 255 | 1.2 |
| The End of the Tour | A24 | .13 (950) | -58% | 138 | 2.6 |
| Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine | Magnolia | .13 (2,260) | 56 | 0.13 | |
| Assassination | Well Go | .11 (5,960) | -27% | 18 | 1.7 |
| Amy | A24 | 83,300 (1,210) | -18% | 69 | 8 |
| Dragon Blade | Lionsgate | 27,400 (1,710) | 16 | 0.03 | |
| The Black Panthers: Vanguard of Revolution | PBS | 19,200 (19,200) | 1 | 0.02 | |
| Before We Go | Weinstein Co. | 16,800 (730) | 23 | 0.02 | |
| Rififi (reissue) | Rialto | 14,900 (7,450) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Dynamite | 24 Frames | 13,400 (330) | 41 | 0.01 | |
| Paayum Puli | Prime Media | 12,700 (450) | 28 | 0.01 | |
| Heroes of Dirt | Blue Trail | 10,300 (290) | 35 | 0.01 | |
| Bloodsucking Bastards | Scream Factory | 9,500 (860) | 11 | 0.01 | |
| Une heure de tranquillité | A-Z Films | 8,800 (1,100) | 8 | 0.01 | |
| Break Point | Broad Green | 5,400 (540) | 10 | 0.01 | |
| Call Me King | GVN | 1,800 (900) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – September 3, 2015) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| Universal (16) | 2148.9 | 28.00% | |||
| Buena Vista (12) | 1424.4 | 18.60% | |||
| Warner Bros. (23) | 1250.2 | 16.30% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (17) | 768.5 | 10.00% | |||
| Paramount (9) | 539.9 | 7.00% | |||
| Sony (11) | 332.1 | 4.30% | |||
| Weinstein Co, (15) | 255.1 | 3.30% | |||
| Lionsgate (12) | 240.5 | 3.10% | |||
| Focus (10) | 100 | 1.30% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (7) | 94.1 | 1.20% | |||
| Relativity (6) | 71.7 | 0.90% | |||
| Sony Classics (18) | 51.6 | 0.70% | |||
| A24 (7) | 45.9 | 0.60% | |||
| Open Road (5) | 39.5 | 0.50% | |||
| Other * (257) | 315.1 | 4.10% | |||
| 7677.5 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
| Top Global Grossers (January 1 – September 3, 2015) | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
| Jurrasic World | Uni | 1,639,353,208 | |||
| Furious 7 | Uni | 1,515,162,581 | |||
| Avengers: Age of Ultron | BV | 1,403,434,820 | |||
| Minions | Uni | 1,030,586,843 | |||
| Inside Out | BV | 621,584,758 | |||
| Fifty Shades of Grey | Uni | 570,309,104 | |||
| American Sniper | WB | 549,569,608 | |||
| Cinderella | BV | 541,978,706 | |||
| San Andreas | WB | 490,198,433 | |||
| Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation | Par | 486,400,440 | |||
| Terminator Ganysis | Par | 418,521,971 | |||
| Kingsman: The Secret Service | Fox | 406,073,377 | |||
| Monster Hunt | Edko | 388,413,766 | |||
| Home | Fox; DmWks | 385,085,573 | |||
| Mad Max: Fury Road | WB | 379,566,152 | |||
| Ant-Man | BV | 370,620,564 | |||
| Taken 3 | Fox; Europa | 328,171,749 | |||
| The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies * | WB | 324,095,379 | |||
| SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water | Par | 314,647,753 | |||
| Big Hero 6 * | BV | 307,976,246 | |||
| Insurgent | Lionsgate | 293,086,775 | |||
| Pitch Perfect 2 | Uni | 285,872,413 | |||
| Spy | Fox | 234,926,470 | |||
| Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb * | Fox | 227,262,504 | |||
| Tomorrowland | BV | 208,086,814 | |||
| * does not include 2014 box office | |||||
