Weekend Estimates: Spy! Beats Crowded Field with $30 Million Debut
June 7, 2015
Going into the weekend, any one of three films could conceivably win at the box office, with a fourth wide release having the potential to act as a spoiler by pulling away some of the audience from the others. In the event, the right film won, if one goes by the reviews, with Spy! pulling in $30 million to take the prize. That’s basically a par score for Melissa McCarthy, compared to Bridesmaids’ $26 million start, the $34.5 million debut of Identity Thief, The Heat’s $39 million, and Tammy’s $21.5 million. Paul Feig directed McCarthy in Bridesmaids, The Heat and now Spy!, so it’s a par score for him too.
Insidious Chapter 3 will earn about $23 million this weekend, a fairly substantial decline from Chapter 2’s $40 million debut, and not enough to keep San Andreas out of second place. The disaster movie will be down 52% to $26.4 million in its second outing, and will pass $100 million domestically on Monday.
The third new wide release, Entourage, opened on Wednesday to avoid the crush, but that didn’t do a huge amount to improve its fortunes, with $10.4 million over the Friday–Sunday weekend and $17.8 million so far being a disappointment.
In wide-ish limited release, Love & Mercy will post a respectable $2.2 million or so from 484 theaters, which won’t quite be enough to get in the top 10, although the film could reach that group when it expands in the next few weeks. Bollywood movie Dil Dhadakne Do will get no higher than its current 12th place, but $1.3 million from 238 theaters is an impressive performance.
The top theater average for the weekend will be posted by Testament of Youth with $53,008 projected in four locations by Sony Classics.
Bruce Nash, bruce.nash@the-numbers.com
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Entourage, Spy!, Insidious Chapter 3, San Andreas, Love & Mercy, Testament of Youth, Dil Dhadakne Do, Melissa McCarthy, Paul Feig