MINIONS and JURASSIC WORLD grossed a combined US$3.96m !

23 Jun 2015

Singapore - In the battle of the Titans, MINIONS emerged as the champion of the box office, beating JURASSIC WORLD which debut last week with US$3.64m over its first 4-days (excluding sneaks).

Going into the weekend, it looked like MINIONS would be crushed by the Indominus Rex pic, which scored the 3rd biggest opening weekend of all-time. A probable 50% slide would have translated to a gross of at least US$1.82m this weekend.

The last time the Minions appeared in DESPICABLE ME 2, they kicked off with US$1.84m over its first 4-days. But they do not have the benefit of IMAX 3D screens this time. The only way the cute evil sidekicks wannabes were going to win the box office race was if they performed spectacularly. And this they did with US$2,239,140 from 82 screens (including 3D) for a scorching US$27,307 screen average. Throw in sneaks and the total cume stands at US$2,501,568.

Falling a slim 53%, the dino-adventure took another US$1,729,006 for a US$6,736,125 total to date and is now the 9th highest grossing film of all-time.

All said, this was a monster weekend with the top two films pulling in a combined US$3,968,146 - and one of those rare weekends where the top ten films grossed over US$4m (this happened thrice last year, once in 2013, once in 2011 and possibly one other time so far this year). Almost all screens were booked for these two behemoths, leaving little screens to be shared amongst all the other holdovers and new entrants.

The second highest debut is POLTERGEIST, the remake of the classic 80s horror which only scared up US$187,621 from 29 screens (including 3D). Other debuts include teen action comedy BARELY LETHAL (US$16,090 / 7 screens), the edited for NC16 rating Nick Jonas thriller, CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR (US$11,680 / 4 screens) and Hong Kong drama comedy WONDER MAMA 妈咪侠 (figures not available / 2 screens).

Amongst holdovers, INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 crosses the US$1m mark by adding another US$46,405 to bring its total to US$1,061,946; SAN ANDREAS finds another US$37,163 for a US$2,281,581 cume; SPY adds another US$16,019 for a US$1,194,018 total and futuristic adventure TOMORROWLAND grossed US$5,656 to reach a new peak of US$1,921,285.

[Note: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is reported to have grossed US$6,219 - which meant it should have been ranked ahead of TOMORROWLAND - except it's not. Chalk that up to another discrepancy due to a lack of a reliable published report on box office figures]

Box Office (18 - 21 Jun)

1 (-) Minions (PG)
2 (1) Jurassic World (PG13)
3 (-) Poltergeist (PG13)
4 (2) Insidious: Chapter 3 (PG13)
5 (3) San Andreas (PG13)
6 (-) Barely Lethal (PG13)
7 (4) Spy (M18)
8 (-) Careful What You Wish For (NC16) Edited
9 (5) Tomorrowland (PG)
10 (?) Love & Mercy (PG13)

Other debuts:
Wonder Mama 妈咪侠 (PG)

Sources:
Figures this weekend are taken from The Numbers and Box Office websites (note slight discrepancies for MINIONS and JURASSIC WORLD figures / figures in this report follow The Numbers for these two films); Top ten box office as listed by Cinematograph Film Exhibitors Association.

--