I can’t deny being a little surprised to see 22 Jump Street take the #1 slot over How to Train Your Dragon 2, but it would seem the mere fact Dragon 2 is a well-reviewed movie on the heels of a much-appreciated original doesn’t mean much if it isn’t loaded with fart jokes and pop culture references. With $50 million in its opening weekend and an “A” CinemaScore, Dragon 2 is up $6.3 million from the first film’s total back in 2010, but that isn’t nearly the sequel bump we’ve come to expect. You want to talk about a sequel bump, let’s talk about 22 Jump Street…
In 2012, 21 Jump Street opened with $36.3 million, fast forward two years and the sequel has opened with more than one-and-a-half times that amount, hauling in an estimated $60 million this weekend to go along with an “A-” CinemaScore. If the estimate holds, this will give 22 Jump Street the fifth largest opening ever for an R-rated movie and the second largest for an R-rated comedy behind The Hangover Part II. All that said, the question now is whether or not this one maintains the same staying power as the last one, which only dropped 43.6% in its second weekend or if it falls like a rock, as is the current trend with large openers. Speaking of…
The Fault in Our Stars performed as expected, dropping 67%, though finished the weekend with $15.7 million for a massive domestic cume totalling $81.7 million. The drop may be big, but when you over perform on the level this one did last weekend it pretty much means you’re right on track.
Also in its sophomore session, Edge of Tomorrow had a solid hold as Warner Bros. appears to be attempting to rebrand the well-reviewed Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt sci-fi actioner. The film dropped only 44% for a second weekend total of $16.1 million. The problem here, of course, is the small opening means a small drop still results in a, you guessed it, small second weekend for a film with a $178 million budget.
On a smaller note, The Rover opened in only five theaters this weekend and those that saw it were not only treated to one of the best films of the year so far, but made up the audience that saw the film take in $70,000 in its opening weekend ahead of its nationwide release next week. I caught the film on Thursday and will be reviewing it this coming week, but this Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce starrer is one fans of great cinema are going to want to seek out.
Next week brings Clint Eastwood‘s Jersey Boys and Think Like a Man Too as well as the limited releases of Third Person and Roman Polanski‘s Venus in Fur, the latter of which I highly recommend.
