The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
After two solid weeks at the box office, things slowed down slightly with two movies that failed to derail the DisneyPixar titan Monsters University, which remained at the top spot with $46.1 million, as it held strong against the competition, dropping just 44% in its second weekend. It has grossed $179 million after ten days domestically, as well as another $129 million internationally bringing its global total to $300 million.
The new movie that came closest to making a mark was the action-comedy The Heat, which paired Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as law enforcement agents, bringing in an estimated $40 million over the weekend to take second place. It marks the highest opening weekend gross for both actresses, besting Bullock’s $33 million for The Blind Side and the $34.5 million opening of McCarthy’s Identity Thief earlier this year. (McCarthy also had a small cameo role in The Hangover Part III, which opened with slightly more over the Memorial Day weekend.)
Brad Pitt’s World War Z (Paramount Pictures) dropped 55% to third place after setting a new opening record for the box office star and continuing the studio’s stellar summer box office showing following Star Trek Into Darkness. It took in $29.8 million this weekend to bring its total domestic gross to $123.7 million after ten days in theaters. Internationally, World War Z scored $70 million, which added to the nearly $30 million domestic for a global weekend of $100 million, which made it the #1 movie globally. So far, it has grossed $263 million since opening ten days ago with $124 million of that in North America and the other $135 million overseas.
Roland Emmerich’s action-thriller White House Down, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx and co-starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Joey King and Richard Jenkins, failed to find the audience of his previous blockbusters, opening in fourth place with an estimated $25.7 million in 3,222 theaters, less than half the opening of his 2009 blockbuster hit 2012, averaging less than $8,000 per location. It also added another $6.8 million in the few overseas markets where it opened including Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and others.
Adding six new territories internationally over the weekend was Universal Pictures’ Despicable Me 2, which opened in the UK-Ireland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden before its North American opening on Wednesday, July 3 and grossed $41.5 million on 1,701 screens including Australia, where it opened last weekend. It has opened #1 in most of those regions, performing better than the original movie, as much as 4x ahead of the original movie in the UK & Ireland with $15.7 million, Universal’s biggest opening to date in that region.
Zack Snyder’s Superman movie Man of Steel (Warner Bros.) dropped to fifth place in North America with $20.8 million, down 50% in its third weekend. It has grossed $248 million to date domestically, which makes it the second-highest grossing movie of 2013 after Iron Man 3. It’s grossed $271.7 million internationally, pushing its global total over the $500 million mark as well with a total global cume of $520.4 million.
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s This is the End (Sony) and the ensemble magic heist thriller Now You See Me (Summit) both continued to hold well in sixth and seventh place with $8.7 and $5.5 million, respectively. Over the weekend, Now You See Me crossed the $100 million mark, which is quite an achievement for the $75 million-budgeted movie that entered the summer with a fairly low profile compared to some of the other releases. It has grossed just under $105 million domestically and is starting to roll out internationally over the coming weeks. This is the End has grossed $74.7 million since opening three weekends ago.
As far as limited releases, Pedro Almodovar’s latest movie I’m So Excited! (Sony Pictures Classics opens in New York and Los Angeles on five screens where it brought in $103 thousand or roughly $20 thousand per screen.
Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.
