Weekend Box Office – Bringing The Heat

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it’s decided – People love Melissa McCarthy more than Channing Tatum.  Or Sandra Bullock more than Jamie Foxx.  Or foul-mouthed cops more than the President.  One of those, because The Heat just roasted White House Down at the Box Office.  According to studio estimates, The Heat shot up $40 million this past weekend for #2, while White House Down managed a decent, but not great, $25.7m.  Tatum needs to get back in his assless chaps STAT!

Both films received an A- from CinemaScore audiences, which indicates they were both well-liked by audiences. Still, this is even more impressive for The Heat as it is an R-rated cop comedy with a relative low-budget and zero special effects.  Melissa McCarthy continues her box office domination, hopefully enjoying the spite she’s throwing that douche Rex Reed’s way, and pairing her up with Sandra Bullock was a great matchup.  Women are more than 50% of filmgoers the last few weeks and for this film it shot up to 67%.  Wow.  Come back Thursday for our review of The Heat.

The other new release this weekend was White House Down, the Roland Emmerich directed (Independence Day, 2012) White House hostage thriller starring Channing Tatum and Gerar…I mean Jamie Foxx.  This was a rare misstep for both actors as there are simply too many action flicks out right now and this one was a little too reminiscent of Olympus Has Fallen from a few months ago.  And by a little reminiscent, I mean the exact same plot.  For a $150m budget, opening to $25m is a very bad start.

For the rest of the Top 5, Monsters University held very well and threw another $46m into Pixar’s successful hands for a still early total of $171m.  These guys just CANNOT do wrong it seems.  World War Z held fairly well, dropping only 55% to $29m for a $123m total…pretty impressive seeing all of the other competition this weekend.  And Man of Steel dropped 49% to $20m for a $248m total and now looks like it might not make that coveted $300m it was shooting for.  Worldwide, all 3 of these films are massive hits.

For reviews of World War Z and The Way Way Back (out July 5th), as well as to hear more about this weekend’s upcoming releases, including The Lone Ranger, listen to our all-new HO Episode 99 – HO WarZ!  And, as always, come back Thursday and listen to our new episode with reviews of The Lone Ranger and Heat.  Thanks for listening!