THE WEEKEND ACTUALS

Listing	Film	Weekend	Opening Weekend	Current Gross
	Ant-Man	$57,225,526 million	$57,225,526 million	$57,225,526 million
	Minions	$49,274,730 million	$115,718,405 million	$215,766,440 million
	Trainwreck	$30,097,040 million	$30,097,040 million	$30,097,040 million
	Inside Out	$11,544,080 million	$90,440,272 million	$306,247,046 million
	Jurassic World	$11,454,975 million	$208,806,270 million	$611,228,810 million

Minions took much more of a hit than predicted, settling in 58% down at $49 million, $8 million behind Ant-Man. However, Universal is still smiling today as Minion’s haul–combined with that of the indomitable Jurassic World–has pushed the studio past the 5 billion dollar worldwide box office mark faster than any other in history. Ant-Man won’t be breaking any records, but it managed to garner a solid $57 million, not too shabby given the forecasts. Hopefully the soft opening doesn’t spell disaster for Marvel branching out to more, lesser-known superheroes in the future. Both Ant-Man and fellow newcomer Trainwreck benefited from a sizable marketing push as well as strong reviews, and Trainwreck was a surprise with $30 million. It fell behind Ted 2‘s $33.5 million, but bested Spy ($29 million), and it will likely have a similar longevity thanks to positive word of mouth. Spy has raked in $106+ million since its June 5th debut, but came with a budget a bit higher than Trainwreck‘s estimated $70 million. Ted 2 reportedly cost much more than both with a $125 million budget compared to Spy‘s $100 million. Trainwreck has the potential to keep earning in the coming weeks, overtaking both Spy and Ted 2 in the long run, and hopefully breaking the sad streak of R-Rated comedies dramatically underperforming this year.

Inside Out managed to come back and best Jurassic Park this weekend, beating it by only $0.9 million. With Minions‘ rapid fall, it’s no surprise Inside Out picked up some of the slack. Terminator Genisys followed in sixth place with $5.4 million, bringing its total worldwide to $277 million, still disappointing given its $220 million budget. Magic Mike XXL was just behind in 7th place with $4.5 million, with The Gallows trailing behind at $4 million.

This coming weekend is the first in awhile to have 3 movies opening in wide release: Pixels, Paper Towns, and South Paw. Pixels, a nostalgic action comedy about aliens who attack in the form of arcade characters, stars Adam Sandler, Peter Dinklage, Kevin Smith, Michelle Monaghan, and Josh Gad as the heroes. Sandler and Smith are no strangers to the $40+ million opening, especially together with Grown Ups opening at $40.5 million and its sequel Grown Ups 2 at $41.5 million. It’s been a soft year for James, though, with Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 opening at $23.8 million in April, and Sandler’s last, Blended, grossed only $14.3 million on its first weekend.

Paper Towns, the latest adaptation of ever-popular John Green young adult novels, hopes to follow up last year’s The Fault in Our Stars‘ $48 million opening. Paper Towns was a New York Times bestseller, and its cinematic counterpart is supermodel Cara Delevingne’s first big role. Delevingne plays Margot, the mystery girl the protagonist is searching for throughout the film. Delevingne will also star as part of the super villain team in 2016’s Suicide Squad. 

South Paw stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Billy Hope, a boxer who quits to spend more time with his family, only to have his wife (Rachel McAdams) murdered and his daughter taken away. Hope must reclaim his boxing status to win back custody of his daughter with the help of Titus “Tick Wills,” played by Forest Whitaker. Southpaw is director Antoine Fuqua’s first foray since last year’s The Equalizer. Fuqua’s films tend not to reach to high above $30 million, with The Equalizer highest at $34 million. Early projections put Southpaw considerably lower, thanks to an overall lack of awareness of the film’s existence.

(Sources: boxoffice.com. Starred figures are estimates. Tweets represent figures for this week only. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed.)

Parker Mills | Contributor