Weekend Box Office Report: June 6-8 2014

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

 

BOX OFFICE REPORT June 6-8, 2014(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 51. The Fault in Our Stars ($48.2 million)2. Maleficent ($33.5 million)3. Edge of Tomorrow ($29.1 million)4. X-Men: DoFP ($14.7 million)5. Million Ways to Die  ($7.1 million)

I come to praise Tom Cruise, not to bury him. His latest, the sci-fi flick Edge of Tomorrow, came out whimpering, debuting in third place with less than $30 million this weekend. Despite rapturous reviews from critics and relentless marketing during the NBA playoffs, the film will be remembered as a flop (even though it will break even once you include its foreign grosses). It was one of the more expensive, heavily promoted movies of the summer with one of the biggest, most engaging stars of all time in the lead role, and it still couldn't beat Maleficent in its second weekend or a small-scale romance featuring two cancer-stricken teens.

Yes, The Fault in Our Stars dominated the box office this weekend. The $12 million melodrama obliterated the competition. This is going to happen every summer. There will be a little film, like last year's The Purge, that will "shock everyone" by opening at No. 1 over a more hyped film. Welcome to the future, people.

Meanwhile, Maleficent and X-Men continued their standard declines. A Million Ways to Die in the West sunk even further. It's now at a mere $30 million, which is still more than Edge of Tomorrow.

Outside the top 5: - This Weekend's Indie Champ: Obvious Child, a controversial romantic comedy starring Saturday Night Live alumna Jenny Slate, averaged $27,000 on each of its three screens. 

- Neighbors, which now stands at around $137 million, is the biggest comedy of the year thus far, unseating Ride Along ($134 million). 

- By merely a few thousand dollars, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is now officially the biggest movie of 2014. It beat out long-running champ The LEGO Movie. 

Next week: 22 Jump Street aims to take out Neighbors as the year's top comedy, but whatever it scrapes up will be a pittance compared to How to Train Your Dragon 2, which could easily debut north of $90 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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