Zootopia outperformed all expectations, roaring its way to a stunning $75 million opening. Disney played it smart by running that sloth DMV trailer in front of Episode VII, so every kid who now idolizes Rey and Finn has been bugging their parents for 3 months about Zootopia—and it showed.
Parker Mills
There’s no doubt that Zootopia is going to win the weekend, what with it being lauded as one of Disney’s best films of all time in early reviews. Of course, Disney’s hoping to top Frozen’s wide opening of $67.4 million, and it’s tracking high enough to at least leave Big Hero 6’s $56.2 million in the dust. The real question this weekend is who’s going to come in second.
As predicted, Deadpool sailed past $500 million worldwide within 12 days, and now sits comfortably at $513 million. The next landmark the Merc with the Mouth has his eye on? $300 million domestic. Though that’s $50 million away currently, it should be about $30 million closer after this coming weekend.
Deadpool had another killer weekend. Thanks to $236.8 million domestic and another $256.2 million in the foreign market, the breakout not-quite-superhero flick is just one good day away from breezing past $500 million global.
This is the final weekend any movie in theaters has to pull in the cash before The Force Awakens premieres and crushes all lesser movies in its path. Will Mockingjay bow to the Moby Dick-inspired In the Heart of the Sea?
Fresh off advancing to the Top 25 Semi-Finals, 2015 Launch Pad Feature Competition alum Mikko Tormala has signed with Adrian Garcia and David Boxerbaum of Paradigm Talent Agency and Brooklyn Weaver of Energy Entertainment!
While The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 will certainly roost in first, it’ll be fighting to keep The Good Dinosaur at bay. And the last Pixar film to open in November was The Incredibles, which made $70.5 million its first weekend in 2004.
We’re pleased to announce that Allard Cantor and Jarrod Murray of Epicenter have signed two-time Launch Pad alum Ahmadu Garba! Garba placed in both the Launch Pad Pilot and Feature Competition this year with his amazing pilot The Eleventh Hour and his epic feature Augustus.
Mark Lawyer of Markerstone has signed 2015 Launch Pad Feature Competition alum Guy Francisco Polin. Polin’s spec Hemophilia was a favorite amongst our judges as an eerie dark mystery that kept everyone turning pages.
Launch Pad alum Sarah Acosta has been signed by Robyn Meisinger and Ryan Cunningham at Madhouse Entertainment. Acosta, who wrote the incredible supernatural drama pilot Eclipsed, becomes the 104th Launch Pad writer to land representation.
CAA agents Jacquie Katz and Praveen Pandian and Untitled Entertainment manager Jennifer Au have signed 2015 Launch Pad Pilot Competition Top Comedy Winner Shira Hoffman. Hoffman becomes the 103rd writer to find representation through the Launch Pad competition.
We all know Spectre’s going to win the weekend. It’s already broken box office records in the UK, and pulled in $80.4 million in less than a week in only the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands— $63.8 million of that in Britain alone. The question on everyone’s minds, especially Sony’s, is if it can trounce Skyfall’s numbers from 2012.
Coming off the worst weekend of the year, it just feels like the whole town’s holding their breath for Spectre, and the numbers overseas are looking promising for a domestic box office revival. The Martian remained in 1st with another $11.7 million, dropping only 26% in its 5th weekend out.
The Martian will reign for its 5th weekend, seeing a dip of only 25-30%, comparable to last week. Goosebumps will still see some boosts from the festivities, but newcomers Burnt, Our Brand is Crisis, and Scouts Guide to The Zombie Apocalypse are in for some truly scary returns.
Hollywood might’ve thought they were past the box office slump of the late-summer, but this weekend proved everyone wrong. Only The Martian impressed, pulling out all the stops to fall only 26% and win back 1st place with $15.7 million in its 4th weekend.
Much as its subject did in life, Steve Jobs will dominate this weekend. In a year where Universal needs no extra help, Jobs will be, if nothing else, the icing on the cake. Newcomer The Last Witch Hunter will be fighting Goosebumps for that 2nd place slot, but it doesn’t really stand a chance.
The Martian will finally face some competition from newcomer Bridge of Spies. Spies and The Martian will be fighting for the same adult audience, but if Goosebumps takes #1, it’ll be because of parents, as The Martian is still tracking high with everyone else.
Pan performed about as well as could be expected with $15.3 million, and negative word of mouth is leaving this $150 million flop in the hands of the overseas box office.
The Martian has being doing stellar since the last time we checked in with it and, as of yesterday, is lagging behind Gravity‘s daily numbers by roughly $6 million. Currently sitting at $67.9 million domestically, The Martian is prepped to just cross the $100 million line this weekend with around a 35% drop and another $35.3 million.
Turns out the world loves The Martian just as much as TIFF did, and for good reason. Worldwide, it’s drawn in $98.9 million so far, and with little competition it’ll keep on dominating the box office for now.
It feels like everyone’s just been waiting for The Martian to open, and inventive advertising has made us even more eager to see Matt Damon’s eternal hopefulness on the big screen this weekend. Similarly-themed stranded-in-space flick Gravityopened to the tune of $55.8 million in 2013, and Fox hopes The Martian can best or beat those numbers.
Come this Friday, Hotel Transylvania 2 will be battling it out with Everest, but families will be the driving force behind the former’s weekend win. Not since Minions has there been a wide-release animated family movie, and it’s tracking high, even for a sequel.
It was a close race between Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and its predecessor, with Scorch Trials falling behind day-by-day as well as over its opening weekend. Black Mass performed with an expected $22.6 million, leaving a little to be desired with a reported $53 million budget and not much movement in foreign markets.
Pre-ticket sales for both Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and fellow opener Black Mass have been close so far, but Scorch Trials will win out simply thanks to better marketing and a wider audience. And Scorch Trials is shaping up to be big, at least in comparison to recent box office numbers.
It was a long fall to 3rd place, with War Room making less than a third of what The Visit pulled in. The faith-based family film sits at $39.6 million domestically, surpassing both writer-director Alex Kendrick’s previous successes Courageous and Fireproof.
In a weekend of thriller releases, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit opens alongside The Perfect Guy. The newcomers will claim the top 2 spots, simply from a lack of other options at the theater.
In an unexpected upset, War Room seems to have gotten some heavenly help to reach the #1 spot this Labor Day weekend. Officially keeping Straight Outta Compton from holding onto first place for a solid month, the faith-based film saw a minimal 16% drop from last week and pulled in just shy of $9.5 million in its second weekend.
It’s been a rough few weeks to say the least, and the Labor Day box office look to be as lazy as ever. The drop off we’ll see this weekend will be considerably smaller, closer to 20-30%. Still, it’s not looking good for newcomers The Transporter Refueled and A Walk in the Woods.
Nothing can top Straight Outta Compton going into its 3rd weekend, even with a 40-45% fall. At $118.9 million total, Compton has nearly doubled its $60 million opening. The box office was lackluster last weekend, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be anywhere close to recovering until mid-September
What with a weekend of low-earnings and some small, unexpected wins, it looks like the summer season is truly at a close. Compton suffered from a 56% drop, while Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation fell only 33%.
