Based on the box office this weekend, there were only two movies in release – so it goes as the summer movie season approaches. Despite the fact that the animated sequel Rio 2 opened in first place on Friday, it slipped into second place for Saturday and Sunday, which allowed Captain America: The Winter Soldier to claim the number 1 slot for the second weekend in a row. Captain added $41.3 million to its total for an overall gross of $159 million in the States. It’s also racked up an additional $317 million overseas for a $476 million worldwide total, putting it in line to finish around the total of last year’s Thor: The Dark World. The Avengers franchise has made an incredible $6.1 billion worldwide to date, putting it among the most successful franchises of all time, so superheroes aren’t going away anytime soon.
Rio 2 opened at a close-behind number 2 with $39 million, which is almost exactly the number its predecessor opened at in 2011. The first film made about $143 million, and it’s likely that the sequel will do about the same, given that there’s not much in the way of family film competition in the coming weeks. Keeping in line with most horror movie releases made on tiny budgets, the mirror-based horror movie Oculus opened in third place with $12 million, not exactly trailblazing for the genre but enough to make the studio’s investment worthwhile. And Draft Day, the latest movie in Kevin Costner’s comeback run, opened with $9.75 million, clearly nailing the older crowd but not nailing the kind of audience Moneyball got a couple of years ago when it opened to nearly $20 million. Still, it’s another low-risk investment that will likely turn a small profit.
On the indie front, the hotly-anticipated-in-film-geek-circles Indonesian action sequel The Raid 2 expanded to 954 locations this weekend, but proved that the demand for the film is pretty much limited to film geek and action fan circles – it took in $1.01 million, which is only slightly more than the original film earned in its first wide-release weekend. Audiences weren’t really lining up to see the Nicolas Cage/David Gordon Green offering Joe, which took in $106,000 at 48 locations, or the Nick Frost dancing movie Cuban Fury, which made $55,500 at 79 locations. That’s a pretty pathetic $703 per-theater average, or about five people at each screening.
Source: BoxOfficeMojo
