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- Weekend Box Office: 'X-Men' Crushes 'Godzilla,' Rules Memorial Day
- Box Office: Six Lessons From a Weak Memorial Day Weekend
- 10 Successful TV Shows That Had Summer Premieres (VIDEO)
| Weekend Box Office: 'X-Men' Crushes 'Godzilla,' Rules Memorial Day Posted:  LOS ANGELES (AP) - A team of mutants overpowered one massive mutant monster at the box office during the Memorial Day holiday. Fox-Marvel's "X-Men: Days of Future Past" debuted with $91 million beating last weekend's No. 1 hit, the Warner Bros. sci-fi adventure "Godzilla," which earned $31.4 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. "Days of Future Past" is estimated to earn nearly $110 million over the four-day extended holiday weekend, which would make it the fifth-highest Memorial Day opener just after last year's $117 million-grossing "Fast & Furious 6." ''Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" holds as the highest Memorial holiday debut ever with $140 million in 2007. It appears the attention "Days of Future Past" director Bryan Singer has received lately due a sexual assault lawsuit didn't deter fans from flocking to the theater. The director dropped out of doing any press for the film following the allegations because he didn't want to divert attention from the movie. "Rarely do outside situations impact the box office," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak. "The true fans, all they care about is the movie." "Days of Future Past" is the second-highest opener in the "X-Men" franchise after Brett Ratner's "X-Men: The Last Stand" debuted over Memorial Day weekend with $123 million in 2006. The film brings together a massive star-studded cast including Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Peter Dinklage and Ellen Page. Globally, "Days of Future Past" opened No. 1 in 119 countries with $262 million, the highest grossing opening weekend worldwide of the "X-Men" franchise and the biggest Fox International opening weekend ever. "This is a franchise that started back in 2000, which predated the first 'Spider-Man' movie by two years so 'X-Men' started the renaissance in the world of big superhero movies," Dergarabedian said. The Warner Bros. romantic comedy "Blended" debuted at No. 3 with a lackluster $14.2 million. In the movie, Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore team up for the third time following "The Wedding Singer" and "50 First Dates." Though Sandler's "Grown Ups 2" grossed $247 million worldwide, his box office success has teetered over the years. His 2012 comedy "That's My Boy" earned only $58 million globally, while his 2011 films, "Jack and Jill" and the Jennifer Aniston co-starring "Just Go With It" gained $150 million and $215 million worldwide, respectively. Universal's Seth Rogen and Zac Efron-starring lewd comedy "Neighbors" took in $14 million as it crosses the $100 million mark domestically with $114 million overall. Sony's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" rounds out the top five with $8 million in its fourth weekend, while Disney's "Million Dollar Arm" followed close behind with a solid $7.1 million in its second weekend. Four comedies populated the top 10 with Fox's "The Other Woman" landing at No. 7 and Jon Favreau's "Chef," at No. 9. In 2013, Memorial Day weekend was the biggest grossing weekend of the year with $314.2 million over the four-day holiday that saw "Fast & Furious 6," ''The Hangover Part III" and the animated "Epic" debut. "This year it will be more like $230 million," said Dergarabedian, who notes that next year has a shot at being a record-breaking Memorial weekend due to the debut of Marvel's "Avengers" sequel "Avengers: Age of Ultron." Top 10 at the Weekend Box Office (4-Day Weekend Estimates) 1."X-Men: Days of Future Past" - $111 M 2."Godzilla" - $39.5 M 3."Blended" - $18 M 4."Neighbors" - $17 M 5."The Amazing Spider-Man 2" - $10 M 6."Million Dollar Arm" - $8.7 M 7."The Other Woman" - $4.5 M 8."Rio 2" - $3.3 M 9."Chef" - $2.9 M 10."Heaven Is for Real" - $2.8 M Article photo courtesy of FOX This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Box Office: Six Lessons From a Weak Memorial Day Weekend Posted:  1. A little competition is good for everybody. Last year's Memorial Day weekend, which saw two would-be blockbusters aimed at similar audiences ("Fast & Furious 6" and "The Hangover Part III") open head to head, resulted in a $250 million weekend at the box office for the top 10 movies. This year's lopsided bout between superhero sequel "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and Adam Sandler comedy "Blended" resulted in a holiday weekend take about 29 percent behind last year's.2. Every potential revenue source counts. "X-Men" enjoyed the fifth-biggest Memorial Day weekend debut ever, with an estimated $90.7 million from Friday to Sunday and a projected $110.0 million over the four-day weekend. Still, that was on the low end of expectations. After all, the second-biggest Memorial Day weekend opening belonged to 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand" (which was the last time -- until now -- that we got to see the original X-Men cast playing the iconic mutant heroes), and its $102.8 million was scored at cheaper ticket prices, and without the benefit of 3D or IMAX. The new X-film did have 3D but not IMAX to boost ticket prices. Imagine if it had opened on a couple hundred of the giant screens; it could have cracked $100 million in three days. 3. This year's blockbusters ain't what they used to be. Among 2014's biggest movies to date, the biggest so far is actually "The LEGO Movie," at $254.5 million. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is only $1 million (and probably a couple of days) shy of surpassing it. Otherwise, however, the $250 million mark appears out of reach to the remaining current blockbusters, including "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" ($184.9 million to date), "Godzilla" ($148.8 million), "Divergent" ($147.9 million), and "X-Men: Days of Future Past." That doesn't mean we won't get bigger hits later in the summer, but so far, they're not swinging for the fences. 4. Adam Sandler's audience is... who? On paper, "Blended" looks like a smart idea, pairing Sandler with Drew Barrymore for the third time, and counter-programming the romantic comedy against an action spectacle. But the film opened in third place with just $14.2 million from Friday to Sunday and a likely $18 million over the entire holiday weekend. That's well below expectations, which were around $25 million for the first three days and $30 million for the four-day weekend. The problems here are many: First, the adolescents who like Sandler's bathroom humor and slapstick, as well as the women who might be drawn by Barrymore, were both more likely to go see "X-Men" this weekend. Or, if they were in the mood for a comedy, the still-strong "Neighbors" (No. 4 this weekend with an estimated $13.9 million three-day take and a projected $17.3 million four-day take). Also, "Blended" earned very poor reviews, which is typical for Sandler film but usually not a factor for his under-25 viewers. But this one was also trying to target adults, who do care about reviews. Sandler, who used to be able to count on $40 million opening weekends, has been very hit-or-miss at the box office in recent years, perhaps because, as he ages and addresses adult topics like marriage, parenthood, and divorce, his hot-tempered boy-man persona remains juvenile, as does his humor. Again, "Neighbors" seems to have addressed this same adult/adolescent divide a lot more deftly. 5. Speaking of adults, the studios haven't quite forgotten about them. This week's chart offers a couple of interesting test cases. One is "Million Dollar Arm," which slipped only a modest 33 percent from last week's debut for a three-day take estimated at $7.1 million and a total to date of $20.6 million (a projected $21.8 million by the end of the holiday). That's not great for a movie that cost $25 million to make, but what's more astonishing is that a big studio like Disney even made a $25 million movie, instead of spending under $15 million for a comedy or horror movie or $100 million or more on a cartoon or a summer spectacle. The midrange movie, typically a drama made for grown-ups, either appears only at the end of the year (awards season) or not at all. So it's a big deal that Disney tried to launch one this summer, and that it hasn't really panned out in a way that will encourage Disney or any other major studio to try again any time soon. On the other hand, there's also Jon Favreau's "Chef," which finally expanded wide this weekend (to nearly 500 screens) and cracked the top 9 as a result (with an estimated $2.3 million through Sunday and a likely $2.9 million through Monday). On that scale (it's playing in only one-sixth as many theaters as "Million Dollar Arm,") the movie looks like a promising success, one that might continue to grow throughout the summer as the studios fight for kiddie dollars at the multiplex. (It doesn't hurt that "Chef"'s distributor is Open Road, owned by the same corporate parents as Regal and AMC, two of the nation's biggest theater chains, so it should be able to hold on to its screens longer than it otherwise might.) 6. Those accusations against director Bryan Singer don't seem to have had any effect on the box office for "X-Men: Days of Future Past." This is true not just in North America, but in more than 100 other countries where "X-Men" opened this weekend, to the tune of $261.8 million worldwide. So, that's good news for Woody Allen and Roman Polanski. Photo courtesy Warner Bros. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 10 Successful TV Shows That Had Summer Premieres (VIDEO) Posted:  Summer is just around the corner and that means a hiatus for some of our favorite shows. But don't count the season out when it comes to new TV. There are plenty of great shows that made debuts in the summer. You might be surprised by a few of the super popular programs that didn't air their first episode in the fall... Here's our handy list of a few great TV shows that originally premiered during the summer TV season. Photo courtesy of Getty This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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