McCarthy Wins Weekend as “Spy” Sneaks Past Competition

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT 

June 5-7, 2015(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 51. Spy (30.0 million)2. San Andreas ($26.4 million)3. Insidious: Chapter 3 ($23.0 million)4. Entourage ($10.4 million)5. Mad Max: Fury Road ($7.9 million)

This week, everyone got a turn at No. 1. Opening on Wednesday, the bros of Entourage got to enjoy the good life. Then, on Friday, the ghosts of Insidious Chapter 3 jumped to the lead. But it was Melissa McCarthy's antics that ended up ruling the weekend. Spy wound up in first place with an estimated $30 million. That's McCarthy's third opening at or above $30 million, proving her comedy stylings are here to stay.

San Andreas "˜Rock'ed the No. 2 position, bringing the disaster flick up past $92 million. That was enough to beat Insidious Chapter 3. The prequel opened below the second outing ($40.2 million), but above the first entry ($13.2 million). It's also a hair above the more heavily promoted Poltergeist remake ($22.6 million). 

But it wasn't all champagne and caviar for the Entourage guys. The big screen adaptation of the HBO series made $10.4 million over the weekend and only $17.8 million since opening Wednesday. Someone's agent is probably screaming at someone on the phone right now in a case of art imitating life. Still, it was good to be Mad. Fury Road finally overtook Pitch Perfect 2, if only for a week. It's now at $130.8 million domestically and $300 million worldwide. That's more than all previous Mad Max movies combined.

Outside the top 5: - This Weekend's Indie Champ: Testament of Youth, the WWI-set romance starring Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) and Kit Harington (Game of Thrones). It averaged $13,250 on four screens.

- In today's obvious news: It's good to be The Avengers.  Age of Ultron has now made more than $1.3 billion worldwide, placing it fifth all time, ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, but still behind Furious 7.

- It was also a good weekend for awkwardly titled films: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence and the Indian film Dil Dhadakne Do averaged more than $5,500 in their limited openings.

Next week: Jurassic World is here to swallow the competition. There's no way around it: it's going to have the summer's second biggest opening. $90 million seems feasible, but maybe even too low. So I'll be a little generous and guess $95 million, with a ridiculous second weekend depending on how good the word-of-mouth is.

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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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