Weekend Report: 'Pacific Rim' Loses to Family Sequels
by Ray Subers
July 14, 2013
Gauging by Internet hype, Pacific Rim was easily the most-anticipated movie opening this weekend. General audiences weren't quite as enthusiastic, though, and the monsters vs. robots action movie wound up behind Adam Sandler's Grown Ups 2 and animated hit Despicable Me 2.
Overall, the Top 12 earned $187.9 million, which is up 22 percent year-over-year.
In first place, Despicable Me 2 fell 47 percent to $43.9 million this weekend. That's generally in line with last month's Monsters University, though the drop is a bit steeper than that of the first Despicable Me (42 percent). Through 12 days, Despicable Me 2 has earned $228.4 million, and will pass the first movie's $251.5 million total by Friday. Based on its current trajectory, it should wind up being the Summer's second-highest-grossing movie with around $350 million.
In second place, comedy sequel Grown Ups 2 opened to $41.5 million from 3,491 locations. That's slightly better than the first Grown Ups, which took in $40.5 million over its first weekend in 2010. It's also the fourth-highest live-action debut in star Adam Sandler's 20-year career (first place belongs to The Longest Yard with $47.6 million).
After poor performances from Jack and Jill ($74.1 million) and That's My Boy ($36.9 million), many speculated that audiences were tiring of Adam Sandler's shtick. That may be the case, though Grown Ups 2's opening suggests that audiences were simply rejecting off-brand, misguided efforts from Sandler, not Sandler himself. The marketing didn't rest on Sandler alone, though: it made clear that most of the gang was coming back from the original, and had a few stand-out gags as well (the deer pee and cliff jump scenes may be crude, but they're also very memorable). Exit polling indicated that the audience was 53 percent female and 54 percent under the age of 25, which suggests that this was a draw among family audiences.
While Grown Ups 2 opened higher than the first movie, it's unlikely to match that movie's $162 million total. It received a poor "B" CinemaScore—in line with Jack and Jill—and isn't going to get the holiday boost that the first Grown Ups had over the Fourth of July weekend. Still, Grown Ups 2 is well-positioned for a final gross of at least $120 million.
Playing at 3,275 theaters, Pacific Rim debuted to $37.3 million this weekend. That's the highest opening ever for director Guillermo Del Toro ahead of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which took in $34.5 million on the same weekend in 2008. Still, it's not a particularly strong start: among recent non-sequel sci-fi, it's about on par with Oblivion ($37 million), and way off from World War Z ($66.4 million).
The movie performed particularly well in IMAX, which accounted for $7.9 million (19 percent) of the opening. Its 50 percent 3D share was the highest so far this Summer, though that's mainly a statement on how weak 3D has been at the domestic box office lately.
Going in to the weekend, some tracking suggested Pacific Rim was in for a truly terrible start (below $30 million). While it wound up opening noticeably better than that, its $38.3 million debut is still a little disappointing. Because director Guillermo Del Toro isn't a mainstream selling point, and because the movie was entirely free of true movie stars, Warner Bros. marketing made the primary selling point the monsters vs. robots action. While that proved very appealing to a niche "fan boy" audience, the movie remained inaccessible to general moviegoers. Without their support, there's only so high a movie can go on opening weekend.
As expected, the audience skewed younger (67 percent under the age of 35) and male (61 percent). It received a good "A-" CinemaScore; combine that with decent reviews, and it's likely that Pacific Rim has solid holds over the next few weeks. Still, it's unlikely that the movie winds up much higher than $110 million, which means that its ultimate success will be almost entirely dependent on international performance.
In its third weekend, The Heat fell 44 percent to $14 million. To date, the Sandra Bullock/Melissa McCarthy movie has earned $112.4 million, and is on pace to be the highest-grossing comedy of the Summer with over $150 million.
After a disappointing start over the Fourth of July weekend, The Lone Ranger plummeted 61 percent to $11.5 million. In comparison, Johnny Depp's Public Enemies—also a poorly-received Independence Day opener—only dipped 45 percent at the same point. The mega-budget Western has now earned $71.5 million, and will likely fall just short of reaching $100 million total.
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Originally Posted by Empty_Cup
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