Weekend Estimates: Fantastic Four Falls Flat

August 9, 2015

Fantastic Four

The Summer Season has come to an abrupt end this weekend, with Fantastic Four busting out with only $26.2 million, according to Fox’s Sunday morning estimate. That’s about half of what one would expect for a superhero movie in this budget range, even taking into account the fact that it’s the first in a potential franchise (see here for some comparisons), and a final box office total of less than $80 million seems in prospect, which is nothing short of a disaster: the film is likely not to even cover its marketing budget.

The failure of Fantastic Four will leave Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation a somewhat surprising winner in its second weekend, even though it’ll be down 47% to about $29.4 million. The thriller has racked up $108.7 million in 10 days.

Third place will go to The Gift, which is the first release for new distributor STX Entertainment. An average of $4,800 per theater is an impressive start for a company that’s new to the market—usually it takes a while to iron out all the kinks in a new operation—and the film (which is getting excellent reviews) should have a decent run.

The weekend’s two other wide releases are OK, but not particularly spectacularly. Ricki and the Flash is set to make about $7 million on debut from 1,603 theaters. That suggests some room for expansion, but not a huge amount, unless the film can build some word-of-mouth. Kids film Shaun the Sheep will quietly accumulate $4 million from 2,320 venues, but might make up some ground in matinée performances during the week.

- Weekend Estimates

Bruce Nash,

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Fantastic Four, Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, Ricki and the Flash, Shaun the Sheep, The Gift