The apes rose again at the box office, but overall it was another lackluster showing from the top 10.
In at number 1 is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (read our review) with $73 million. That’s a decent improvement over Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘ $55 million in 2011 and is a clear sign the strong buzz surrounding the film did its job. And although it’s still early, we suspect it’s safe to say this isn’t the last audiences have seen of Caesar.
Internationally, Dawn opened in only a few markets, pulling in about $30 million overall. Like in North America, the sequel is showing an uptick when compared to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the film should continue to show strong growth as it expands.
Transformers: Age of Extinction is the number 2 film with $16.5 million, which brings its domestic total up to $209 million. It was yet another 50% drop for Transformers 4, but the spectacle-filled blockbuster has already done plenty of damage over its past two weeks. Now at $752 million worldwide, Transformers is already (yes, already) the highest grossing film of the year and well on its way to another $1 billion haul. Can any of the remaining 2014 releases top this film?
Coming in at number 3 is Tammy with $12.9 million. Melissa McCarthy’s latest comedy is well below her more successful films’ totals, but is doing just fine with $57 million overall.
The number 4 film this weekend is 22 Jump Street with $6.7 million. Audience’s return trip to Jump Street has been a huge success, pulling in $171 million domestic.
Rounding out the top 5 is How to Train Your Dragon 2 with $5.8 million. Fox’s animated sequel is still well behind its predecessor, which makes justifying a third film that much harder. That being said, the film has grossed $152 million domestic and $349 million worldwide.
In at number 6 is Earth to Echo with $5.5 million, which brings its domestic total up to $24 million. The good news is the film has nearly doubled its $13 million budget, despite being almost universally overlooked by audiences.
Deliver Us From Evil fell to the number 7 spot this weekend with $4.7 million. Clearly the horror film, which boasts a solid cast and director, didn’t resonate so well with fans of the genre, having grossed a disappointing $25 million after two weeks.
Coming in at number 8 is Maleficent with $4.1 million. In case anyone hadn’t heard, Disney’s live-action fairy tale adaptations are pretty popular. Maleficent, for example, has grossed $221 million domestic and $668 million worldwide.
Jumping up to the number 9 spot this weekend is Begin Again with $2.9 million. Mark Ruffalo’s musical comedy is doing so-so business in limited release ($3,126/screen) and has tallied $5 million thus far.
Rounding out the top 10 is Jersey Boys with $2.51 million, bringing its domestic tally up to $41 million. While Clint Eastwood’s musical has finally surpassed its $40 million production budget, it likely won’t make much more than $50M total.
Outside the top 10: Richard Linklater’s Boyhood opened with $359,000 on just 5 screens for a per-screen-average of $71,800. That’s the second best per-screen for a 2014 release, behind The Grand Budapest Hotel.
[NOTE: These are only weekend box office estimates – based on Friday and Saturday ticket sales coupled with adjusted expectations for Sunday. Official weekend box office results will be released on Monday, July 14th – at which time we’ll update this post with any changes.]
