Daily Box Office Analysis

By Edwin Davies

July 23, 2014

Jonah Hill's bad dancing ability is rubbing off on Channing Tatum.

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Those damn, dirty apes continued to put their paws all over American moviegoers’ money on Tuesday, as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes continued to hold the top spot with $5,076,572. That’s a solid increase of 20.7% from Monday, and pretty much ensures that the eighth/second Apes film will have crossed the $150 million mark by the time you read this on its 13th day of release. (Something that it took Rise of the Planets of the Apes a full 26 days to accomplish.) That should keep those CGI horses in CGI hay for some time to come.

The Purge: Anarchy sits firmly in second place with a $3,562,415. That represents a somewhat less than anarchic increase of 7.2% from Monday, and is the lowest increase in the top ten, but it’s worth noting that the first Purge fell nearly 20% from its first Monday to Tuesday, so this is an encouraging sign if the film wants to avoid the kind of astonishing second weekend drop that kneecapped its predecessor. It has a running total of $36.7 million after five days, and so far seems to be faring better than might be expected for a quickie sequel to a film that people were, at best, ambivalent towards.

Speaking of which: last weekend’s other new sequel, Planes: Fire and Rescue, took in $2,329,183 on Tuesday, good for a 25.5% rise, which is one of the better improvements in the top 10. Disney probably isn’t expecting this one to be that great of a performer considering the relatively low budget, but it’s easy to see how it might have solid holds throughout a slow, animation-less July, before being purchased by reluctant parents when it comes out on DVD and Blu-ray. It currently has a running total of $21.7 million.




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Sex Tape shows a little bit of life in fourth place, seeing a rise of 26.7% from Monday to $1,972,602. Even so, the fact that it’s showing expected behavior shouldn’t be cause for celebration since it’s starting from a pretty low point. The horribly reviewed Cameron Diaz-Jason Segel sex-and-poorly-understood-tech comedy has $18.1 million after five days. Kind of seems like releasing an actual sex tape would have been a better financial investment at this point.

Michael Bay’s Transformers is slowly running out of steam, but not quite quickly enough, as Age of Extinction holds on to a fifth place position with $1,441,807. It overtook Maleficent to become the second biggest film of the summer, and will probably overtake X-Man: Days of Future Past before Friday, but considering what a bad summer it’s been, that’s like being the tallest hobbit. At its current pace, the fourth outing for benevolent sociopath Optimus Prime looks like it will struggle to reach $250 million, or roughly $100 million less than the third film managed three years ago. Thank you, America, for realizing a film too late that this series is awful, and I’m extremely disappointed in you, The Rest of the World.

A couple of comedies take spots six and seven, as Tammy and 22 Jump Street earned $1,112,606 and $786,881, respectively. Both saw Monday-to-Tuesday increases of more than 20% which, along with Sex Tape, suggests that people like to take in their R-rated comedies mid-week. Both films have exceeded expectations to one degree or another; 22 Jump Street opened huge and didn’t completely flame out, which makes it a real outlier as far as this summer is concerned, and Tammy overcame horrible reviews and a very soft opening weekend to become one of the summer’s leggier films. Tammy and 22 Jump Street now have legitimate shots at earning at least $90 and $190 million, as they continue to be two of the more positive stories (along with Maleficent, which is still hanging in there at number 10) from a very bleak couple of months.


     


 
 

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