Box Office Results: Tatum and Hill Get the Jump on DreamWorks’ Dragon Sequel

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

Summer’s finally here as two sequels to previous blockbuster hits arrived in theaters looking to divide audiences between them, even though it was also a weekend full of sporting events from the Stanley Cup finals to the start of the World Cup, which threatened to keep moviegoers in front of their television sets.

Before the weekend, it seemed a sure thing that the family-friendly animated movie would beat the R-rated action-comedy sequel, but in fact, Sony’s 22 Jump Street, reuniting Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill from the 2012 comedy remake of the popular ’80s television show, heralded itself as the definitive winner of the weekend with an estimated $60 million in 3,306 theaters, roughly $18,000 per location.

After grossing $5.1 million in Thursday night previews, 22 Jump Street, co-starring Ice Cube and directed by hot-as-heck directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie), ended up with $25 million on Friday but then had a significant drop on Saturday, when it took in $18.7 million.

DreamWorks Animation’s second animated movie of the year, How to Train Your Dragon 2, featuring the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Kit Harington, Cate Blanchett, Djimon Honsou, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller and Kristen Wiig, was seen as the favorite for the weekend, especially since it was in nearly 1,000 more theaters. Then again, it was already behind “Jump Street” by more than $7 million on Friday and rather than having the Saturday bump one normally expects from a family movie, it dropped 7% to end the weekend with an estimate of $50 million.

That’s fairly disappointing considering that the original movie opened with $43.7 million in late March 2010, but the buzz around that movie created enough word-of-mouth business to the point where it grossed nearly $500 million worldwide. Some of the movie’s weaker opening could be attributed to the start of the World Cup, but another caveat to take note of is that Sunday is Father’s Day which could give the movie a significant boost. “Dragon” added another $26.5 million overseas for a global opening of $76.5 million.

Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent (Walt Disney Studios) dropped to third place in its third weekend with $19 million, down just 45% from last weekend, as it brought its domestic gross to $163.5 million. It continues to do well overseas where it added another $37.2 million to bring its global total to $436.4 million.

The Tom Cruise-Emily Blunt sci-fi action movie Edge of Tomorrow held up well after a somewhat lackluster opening, holding 56% of its business with $16.2 million to take fourth place. It has grossed $56.6 million domestically and will try to build on positive word-of-mouth to pick up business over the next few weeks. It’s been doing particularly well on IMAX screens, bringing in $3.4 million this weekend in the format to bring is global IMAX total to $22 million.

After a huge opening weekend, Shailene Woodley’s cancer drama The Fault in Our Stars (20th Century Fox) took a massive plunge, down 67% and falling four slots to #5 with $15.7 million, making it obvious that young female fans of John Green’s book rushed out to see it… and then moved on. Still, it has grossed nearly $82 million so far–not bad for a movie that only cost $12 million to make–and it’s also grossed $39.3 million overseas to bring its world total to $121.6 million.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (20th Century Fox) became the first movie of the summer season and only the third movie of the year to cross the $200 million mark, as it added another $9.5 million this weekend for sixth place. It has grossed $205.9 million domestically and another $458 million overseas for a global total of $663.5 million. (Expect The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to join “Days of Future Past” in the $200 million club sometime this week with Godzilla likely to follow sometime later this month.)

Speaking of Godzilla (Legendary/Warner Bros.), it was a tight race for seventh place between that and Seth MacFarlane’s R-rated Western A Million Ways to Die in the West (Universal), both which ended up with just over $3 million. Godzilla took a slight lead despite losing a third of its theaters on Friday with a running domestic total of $191.3 million. MacFarlane’s latest has only grossed $38.9 million after three weeks, less than the opening weekend of his previous movie Ted.

Godzilla opened huge in China this weekend with $36 million, $4.5 million from its IMAX screenings alone, bringing its total global gross to $440 million.

The Top 10 were rounded out by Universal’s more successful R-rated comedy Neighbors with $2.5 million and $143 million total, and Jon Favreau’s sleeper hit Chef (Open Road), which added another $2.3 million to its more modest take of $14.1 million.

Cumulatively, the Top 10 grossed an estimated $181 million, up $40 million from the same weekend last year when the low budget Universal and Blumhouse hit The Purge was #1 with $34 million while the reunion of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn for Fox’s The Internship disappointed with half that amount in fourth place.

In limited release, the sci-fi thriller The Signal (Focus Features), starring Laurence Fishburne, opened in 120 theaters on Friday but facing so many stronger movies, it only brought in $146 thousand (about $1,200 per site).

David (Animal Kingdom) Michod’s Aussie crime-thriller The Rover (A24), starring Guy Pearce, took in roughly half that amount, $70 thousand, but that was in just five theaters in New York and L.A. as it gears up for a wider release on Friday.

Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.