Daily Box Office Analysis

By David Mumpower

August 7, 2014

The Rock versus every single Guardian of the Galaxy. Who ya got?

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Yesterday’s North American box office contained no surprises. Guardians of the Galaxy once again finished in first place, which is only a surprise to people who have been away from the Internet for the past week. The Marvel release has earned more than the rest of the top ten combined for the third consecutive weekday. In the process, it earned its sixth straight day at the top of the charts.

As far as numbers go, Guardians grossed $8.8 million, down 25% from Tuesday’s $11.7 million. It has now earned $126.8 million in North America. In the process, it has narrowed the gap behind Transformers: Age of Extinction. That film earned $7.7 million on its sixth day in theaters. After leading by $5.7 million after opening weekend, Transformers 4 is now only $1.9 million ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy’s pace after six days. The people have spoken, and the science fiction movie is their favorite of the summer, not the awful Michael Bay four-quel.

In terms of other Marvel comic book movies, here is where Guardians stands. The first Captain America and Thor movies both required 13 days. Their sequels needed eight days and nine days, respectively. At this point, Guardians of the Galaxy is pacing ahead of any Avengers-related movie that does not feature Iron Man. Anyone who tells you that they expected this sort of behavior from a new Marvel property based upon obscure characters is lying.

For obvious reason, I have not placed a significant amount of focus upon the rest of the top ten. There was another opener last weekend, though. The James Brown biopic, Get On Up, has been extremely well received by those who have watched it. The movie is currently 78% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and it earned an A Cinemascore. Its underlying quality has not translated to box office success, though. Yesterday, it fell under $1 million in its sixth day of release. A Wednesday take of $949,160 means that it is not long for the box office top ten. The movie has managed $17.1 million thus far, which is not bad for a $30 million production. It is probably going to finish in the $30s range for its entire domestic run, though. That will be disappointing for the Ray wannabe.




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Last week’s topics of note, Lucy and Hercules, have been a mixed bag as well. Lucy is already a huge blockbuster for a $40 million production. It finished in second place again yesterday, its 13th straight day in the top two. The box office total of $1.9 million reflects a 26% from Wednesday’s $2.6 million but only a 49% decline from last Wednesday’s $3.7 million. For an action film, that is a solid second week hold. The Scarlett Johansson biopic (for all we know) has grossed $86.3 million. It should cross $100 million by the middle of next week.

Hercules, the third place film yesterday, could be doing better. Hercules grossed a bit under $1.6 million yesterday, bringing its 13-day take to $52.7 million. As we have discussed, the simple fact that it has not bombed represents an impressive job by Paramount Pictures in avoiding disaster. Still, Hercules fell 29% from Tuesday to Wednesday and is down 56% week-over-week. In terms of Monday to Wednesday, it is down 57% after a 63% weekend decline. It is going to be frontloaded, and will not earn back its $100 million budget domestically. That is why The Rock was hired. His popularity is carrying the movie abroad, where it has already earned $58 million. Hercules is the latest example of a film that is not a box office failure yet not a huge hit, either.

In terms of the meta-picture, I want to follow up on yesterday’s discussion about weekday behavior. As I noted, 79 out of 80 top ten releases this summer have increased from Monday to Tuesday. The behavior is that uniform. Wednesday is similarly predictable. Seventy-nine out of 80 top ten releases have declined from Tuesday to Wednesday. The lone exception was rules-breaker extraordinaire, Chef. It increased 3% on June 4th, thereby preventing a clean sweep of behavioral consistency.

I have also mentioned that Thursday is ordinarily the worst box office weekday. The numbers back this up. They are almost as universal as the prior examples. Seventy-seven out of 80 top ten releases have declined from Wednesday to Thursday. The strongest increase from Wednesday to Thursday this summer was 2%. Overall, out of 240 non-holiday examples, the expected behavior was performed 235 times. We are discussing 97.9% consistency overall.


Daily Numbers Analysis for August 7, 2014
Rank
Movie
Distributor
Daily Gross (in $)
Total Gross (in $)
1 Guardians of the Galaxy Disney 8,808,382 126,759,442
2 Lucy Universal 1,904,220 86,341,755
3 Hercules Paramount 1,155,389 56,866,391
4 Get On Up Universal 949,160 17,113,630
5 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Fox 944,221 192,693,727
6 Planes: Fire and Rescue Disney 801,321 49,813,992
7 The Purge: Anarchy Universal 702,560 65,731,705
8 Sex Tape Sony 464,307 35,465,407
9 And So It Goes Clarius Entertainment 418,367 11,699,011
10 Boyhood IFC Films 283,779 8,313,109

     


 
 

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