Box Office: 'Elysium' takes top spot, 'We're the Millers' debuts strong
Credit: Sony
It was a four-way race for box office supremacy this week among four new entries. When the dust settled, it was a sci-fi, dystopian epic that won the weekend.
Neill Blomkamp's Elysium may have opened lower than expected, but it still opened large enough to take the #1 spot at the box office, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film raked in $30.5 million, and while Sony had hoped the film would either clear $35 million and/or match the $37 million debut of Blomkamp's blockbuster District 9. Sony is reportedly under pressure from shareholder activist Daniel Loeb to improve its overall box office returns, given the iffy climate of the summer box office season this year as a whole. However, Rory Bruer, Sony's President of Worldwide Distribution, insists that the $30 million opening is still a strong showing for the film.
"To hit the $30 million mark is very good considering the competitive landscape and all these new movies coming in. We love being in the Neill Blomkamp business. He's a great storyteller, and this film will be a big success for the studio," said Bruer. Sony still expects the dystopian blockbuster to be a hit overseas, as the film opened in its first 17 territories this weekend, turning in a promising $10.9 million profit, netting the film a first-week worldwide total of $41.4 million. T
Meanwhile, despite not taking the top spot, New Line's We're the Millers was arguably the weekend's biggest winner among the new entries. Opening midweek, the R-rated comedy earned an impressive $26.6 million over the three-day weekend to come in at #2.
Disney's Cars spinoff, Planes, failed to break the recent animation curse, in which any animated feature in the last month not named Despicable Me 2 has failed to crack $30 million in its first week. Planes ultimately split the family audience with the debuting Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, causing both films to suffer, with the former taking in a tepid $21 million while the latter film raked in an underwhelming $14 million.
Rounding out the top five was last week's #1 film, Universal's Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg action pic 2 Guns, which dropped a harsh 59 percent in its second weekend to $11.1 million. The film now sits at a domestic total of $48.5 million. Other films saw significant drops as well, with The Smurfs 2 falling 46 percent for a total of $9.5 million, while The Wolverine took a 62 percent hit, finishing with $8 million in its third weekend. However, the film is a hit overseas, with the Hugh Jackman superhero pic approaching the biggest gross of any X-Men film, as it is currently sitting on a total of $196 million (narrowly edging out X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which earned $195.3 million).
Lastly, while it did not crack the top 10 this week, the Brad Pitt starring zombie pic World War Z reached a milestone. The Hollywood Reporter reveals that, over the weekend, the film's gross grew to $502.6 million, which officially makes this Brad Pitt's highest-grossing film, surpassing the $497.3 million earned by the 2004 swords-and-sandals epic Troy.
Check out the full Top 10 below via Deadline:
1. Elysium ($30.5 million)
2. We’re The Millers ($25.7 million)
3. Planes ($21.0 million)
4. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters ($14.0 million)
5. 2 Guns ($11.3 million)
6. The Smurfs 2 ($9.3 million)
7. The Wolverine ($8.0 million)
8. The Conjuring ($6.3 million)
9. Despicable Me 2 ($5.2 million)
10. Grown Ups 2 ($3.5 million)