Weekend Estimates: X-Men Joins 2014 $90 Million Club
May 25, 2014
Another weekend, another $90 million opener. This time, there’s an asterisk at least, because X-Men: Days of Future Past will “open” with $110 million, thanks to the four day Memorial Day long weekend, giving Fox an arguable claim to the biggest weekend of the year, and the first $100 million debut. The reality, however, is that it will line up in fourth place when comparing 3-day weekends, with Captain America still out in front, thanks to its $95 million opening back in April. May has seen the three other $90 million-plus weekends, with Godzilla second ($93 million) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 third ($91.6 million).
All this is, perhaps, nit-picking, because the truth is that X-Men is enjoying a very impressive start. This is the second-best weekend for the franchise, behind the opening weekend of X-Men: The Last Stand back in 2006 (X2 also tops it on an inflation-adjusted basis). Fox is reporting another $170 million internationally this weekend, for a studio-record $260 million worldwide weekend. With the prime of Summer coming up, and good reviews, the franchise’s record domestic box office (Last Stand’s $234 million) is under threat, and Days of Future Past will definitely become X-Men’s biggest performer worldwide (Last Stand’s $459 million tops that list).
The weekend also sees one out-and-out flop, with Blended set to make about $13.8 million over the three-day weekend, for fourth place. That’s one of Adam Sandler’s worst opening weekends ever, although on a par with 2012’s That’s My Boy. In limited release, fellow romantic comedy Words and Pictures is making a more impressive start, with $88,000 from 10 theaters, helped by somewhat better reviews.
The top performer in limited release this weekend looks like it will be The Dance of Reality, which is set for about $25,000 from two theaters. The film marks a very welcome return for Alejandro Jodorowsky, subject of Jodorowsky’s Dune, another film that has been playing very well in limited release lately.
Bruce Nash, bruce.nash@the-numbers.com
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Blended, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, Jodorowsky’s Dune, Words and Pictures, La danza de la realidad, X-Men, Adam Sandler, Alejandro Jodorowsky