Weekend Wrap-Up: Monsters Graduate Magna Cum Laude
June 25, 2013
It was a great week at the box office with both new releases, Monsters University and World War Z, topping predictions. The overall box office rose 18% to $240 million, which was the eighth biggest weekend of all time. The box office was 46% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2013 is still behind 2012, but now by less than 1% at $4.88 billion to $4.93 billion. Maybe by the end of the month, 2013 will have completely caught up to 2012. The new releases will have to be stronger than anticipated, but it isn't out of the question.
Monsters University had a monster hit opening weekend, earning $82.43 million over its opening weekend. This is the second best opening weekend for a Pixar film, behind Toy Story 3. Its reviews are excellent for a kids film, but weak for a Pixar film. Additionally, Despicable Me 2 opens in a couple of weeks and the competition will undoubtedly hurt this film's box office numbers. This makes it a little hard to predict its future chances. It should get to $250 million, but I'm not sure how much further it will get.
World War Z did better than expected earning second place with $66.41 million over the weekend. This was $20 million more than predictions. It should also come as a huge relief to the studio, who spent close to $200 million making the movie. I doubt they are going to match that figure domestically, even with 68% positive reviews, partially because there is more or less direct competition opening nearly every week from now till the end of summer. On the other hand, with an international flavor to the film, it should do better overseas and this could be the key to the film's financial success.
Man of Steel did not hold on as well as expected, down 65% to $41.29 million over the weekend. It did get to $200 million over the weekend and its running tally sits at $210.08 million. However, getting to $300 million might not be in the future for the film. It depends on if it starts losing theaters before the July 4th long weekend.
This is the End held on better than expected down just 36% to $13.29 million over the weekend for a total of $58.08 million after twelve days of release. At this pace, $100 will be difficult to reach, but it is not out of the question. Even if it doesn't get there, it should break even sooner rather than later.
Now You See Me added $7.88 million over the weekend to its theatrical box office, which now sits at $94.46 million. It will start shedding theaters and will drop out of the top five next weekend, but that won't prevent it from reaching $100 million by this time next week.
Over the weekend, Epic became the 12th film released in 2013 to get to the century mark. It cost $100 million to make, so it will need good international numbers and home market sales to break even, but that seems likely at this point.
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Man of Steel, Monsters University, World War Z, Epic, Now You See Me, This is the End