Weekend Box Office – Box Office Guru

Weekend Box Office (August 7 - 9, 2015)

by Gitesh Pandya

THISWEEKEND Tom Cruise kept his box office title as the veteran actor's latest hit Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation spent its second straight weekend at number one beating a handful of new releases including the new super hero offering Fantastic Four which stumbled into second place. The latest Ethan Hunt adventure grossed an estimated $29.4M dropping an encouraging 47%. That is a terrific hold for an action sequel as MI5 has been benefitting from strong word-of-mouth from those who have seen it already. The cume rose to $108.7M with 369 IMAX screens contributing a high 14% of the total at $15.5M.

All five Mission: Impossible films have now spent exactly two weekends at number one. Four did it during their first two frames while 2011's Ghost Protocol did an IMAX-only debut and then spent its second and third weekends in the top spot that holiday season once in full wide release. The 19-year-old spy franchise is still relevant with today's moviegoers and once again a solid and entertaining product is drawing in customers.

Rogue Nation opened in 18 more overseas markets and collected a stellar $65.5M this weekend from 58 total territories to boost Paramount's international cume to $156.7M and the global haul to $265.4M. With major markets like France, Brazil, and Italy still to open this month followed by China on September 8, MI5 looks on course to make over $700M worldwide which would be a new career high for Tom Cruise.

The new action entry Fantastic Four suffered one of the worst openings ever for a major Marvel super hero property grossing an estimated $26.2M which was less than half of what the two previous films in the franchise opened to. Panned by film critics, the PG-13 pic averaged only $6,558 from 3,995 locations for Fox falling well below what comic book movies do in the prime summer season.

This reboot was clobbered by poor reviews which repelled audiences. Those who did buy tickets agreed and gave a thumbs down. The CinemaScore grade was a lousy C- and other metrics also showed among the lowest scores for any Hollywood film this summer. Moviegoers made a strong statement this weekend telling studios that they will not come out and spend money on super hero movies that are not well-made and exciting. Marvel and DC should listen up given the long list of big-budget comic book movies they have scheduled over the next several years.

Fantastic Four played 60% male according to studio data with younger appeal making the split between those over and under 25 almost even. With a huge 25% tumble on Saturday from Friday, the road ahead looks bleak with the domestic final possibly ending up in the $60-65M range. Last summer's Marvel super hero team flicks X-Men: Days of Future Past and Guardians of the Galaxy made more than that in just their first two days of release. Both were loved by critics and audiences alike.

The first two Fantastic Four pics in the franchise featuring a different cast bowed to $56.1M in 2005 and $58.1M in 2007. The new Four opened to $34.1M in 43 international markets this weekend. Fantastic Four 2 with the same new cast is already on the release calendar for June 9, 2017, but it will need to be seen if any changes are made to that plan.

New distributor STX enjoyed a solid opening for its first release, the psychological thriller The Gift, which landed in third with an estimated $12M from 2,503 sites for a good $4,794 average. The R-rated Jason Bateman pic played 53% female and 73% over 25 and earned rave reviews across the board. Budgeted at only $5M, Gift was not as well-liked by paying audiences as evidenced by the so-so B grade from CinemaScore but even with average legs this one should recoup its production and marketing costs in the near future.

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Weekend Box Office - Box Office Guru