Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Sin City’ Sputters, ‘If I Stay’ Surprises, ‘Guardians’ Reigns Supreme
You can tell the summer movie season is coming to an end because the weekend box office has stopped being exciting and has starting becoming sad and weird. The past two weeks have seen several major movies bomb, but nothing could have prepared us for 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,' which arrived at the last minute to solidify itself as one of the summer's biggest disasters.
Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
1 | Guardians of the Galaxy | $17,631,000 (-29.8) | $5,230 | $251,884,000 |
2 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | $16,800,000 (-41.1) | $4,348 | $145,610,000 |
3 | If I Stay | $16,355,000 | $5,626 | $16,355,000 |
4 | Let's Be Cops | $11,000,000 (-38.2) | $3,503 | $45,246,000 |
5 | When the Game Stands Tall | $9,000,000 | $3,367 | $9,000,000 |
6 | The Giver | $6,730,000 (-45.3) | $2,241 | $24,101,000 |
7 | The Expendables 3 | $6,600,000 (-58.4) | $2,049 | $27,519,000 |
8 | Sin City: A Dame to Kill For | $6,477,000 | $2,238 | $6,477,000 |
9 | The Hundred-Foot Journey | $5,562,000 (-22.5) | $2,861 | $32,750,000 |
10 | Into the Storm | $3,800,000 (-52.9) | $1,600 | $38,301,000 |
Nine years after the original 'Sin City' opened to $29 million and went on to become a sizable hit, the sequel opened in eighth place with a truly pathetic $6 million. It'll stick around in theaters until next weekend, but its time in the top 10 most likely ends here. There's no coming back from this: 'Sin City' as a franchise is deader than dead and director Robert Rodriguez is in trouble. You can't have this and 'Machete Kills' arrive within a year of each other and think everything is going to be okay. Yikes.
But it wasn't a completely terrible weekend for new releases. Chloe Moretz's weepy 'If I Stay' opened in third place to a solid $16 million, putting it within spitting distance of the top two champions. Although it failed to replicate the surprise success of the similarly cry-happy 'The Fault in Our Stars,' this film is already well on its way to a profit. Expect to see a lot more movies about sad teens in the next few years.
The third and final of the weekend's new releases, 'When the Game Stands Tall,' opened in fifth place with $9 million. That's not an amazing number, but the film itself didn't cost much and it didn't have much of a marketing campaign. It's a tiny, flimsy victory, but at least it's not a disaster.
However, the top two slots still belonged to the movies that have been dominating the box office for the past month. With its weekend take of $17 million, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' retook the number one spot, became the highest grossing film of the summer and is only a few days away from being the highest grossing film of 2014 so far. This is a huge, huge victory for Marvel Studios, who have officially proven that they can sell anything.
Speaking of huge victories, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' continued to perform well in second place, grossing $16 million for a $145 million total. Although $200 million is probably out of the question, this is a strong gross that certainly exceeded the expectations of its makers. Everyone is happy with this one.
In fourth place, 'Let's Be Cops' took a surprisingly small drop, grossing $11 million for a $45 million total. It's not going to be a huge hit, but it's certainly going to make a dent on its way out.
The bottom five is, well, just a little sad this week. In addition to 'Sin City,' we have 'The Giver' limping to $24 million, 'The Expendables 3' plummeting from second place to seventh and 'Into the Storm' still failing to impress. The lone bright spot is 'The Hundred-Foot Journey,' which took a negligible drop and continued down the road to sleeper hit status, attracting everyone who's eagerly awaiting that sequel to 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.'