Weekend Report - 'San Andreas' Rocks With $53M
[UPDATE] Dwayne Johnson proved he can open a tentpole film all by his not-so-little lonesome with San Andreas's estimated, beefy $54.6M domestic take. That $14K per theater average, in 3,777 venues, was much better than the predicted $40M for the Warner Bros. disaster flick. 44% of that was attributed to 3D and, with an A- CinemaScore, it looks like the film will have domestic box-office aftershocks for some weeks to come. But the U.S wasn't the only place that the tremors were felt. Overseas, in 60 markets, San Andreas ranked #1 in 55 of those markets, opening with an international cume of $60M (on 14.5k screens) resulting in a worldwide cume of $113.2M.

The real winner in this story, however, is Johnson. San Andreas is the best opening for him where he was not part of an ensemble, such as the Fast and Furious or the G.I. Joe flicks. Last year's underwhelming performance of Bret Ratner's Hercules cast some doubt whether Johnson really could act as the main attraction. But Warner made him the focus of the marketing campaign and Johnson did his usual above-average participation to promote the film. This paid off, not only for him, but also for his director, Brad Peyton. Their last collaboration was Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which opened surprising well in February of 2012, to the tune of $27M, finally ending up at $103.8M domestic and $335.2M worldwide, setting the stage for this triumph.

On the sad part of the box-office spectrum, the other major wide release, the D.O.A. Cameron Crowe movie, Aloha, sputtered to an estimated $9.7M (was $10M) in 2,815 theaters. Interestingly, if that $9.7M holds, which is not assured, Aloha will actually open better than Crowe's last film, 2011's We Bought a Zoo ($9.7M in 3,011 theaters). But that has to be cold comfort for Crowe and crew who wound up at 6th place in the top 10.

That left a lot of room for the holdovers.

Pitch Perfect 2 was in second place, actually adding 100 theaters and ending up with $14.8M and a domestic cume of $147.5M. Internationally the film seems to be following in the footsteps of the original film, that is, lagging behind domestic. The sequel's international weekend estimate is $10.4M in 46 territories for a total of $80.7M. Combined with the U.S. estimate of $147.5M, the worldwide total is $228.2M.

Tomorrowland took a nasty 58.2% drop off of last week for $13.8M over the three days and 3rd place. It's domestic cume is $63.1M. Overseas the film has opened in 88% of the available territories with just Brazil and Japan left and has $70M to show for it. That places Tomorrowland's worldwide cume at $133.2M, which is kind of a depressing turn of events for a film with such a hopeful message.

Mad Max: Fury Road landed in the 4th position with $13.6M, just behind Tomorrowland. That's 44.7% off of last week in 3,255 venues for a $115M domestic cume. Internationally the film made $21.6M on approximately 9,742 screens in 70 release markets. The international cume is now $165M with the worldwide cume standing at $280M (Take that, Pitches!).

In 5th place for the week the still-impressive Avengers: Age of Ultron made $10.9M domestically, which it tossed onto its new domestic take of $427M. Internationally the film added $17.6M to its fearsome $894.2M in 91 territories. That's a worldwide sum of $1.32B.

Like Tomorrowland, the film it opened with, Fox's Poltergeist also took a second week nosedive dropping a whopping 65% from last week with a $7.8M weekend cume and finding itself in 7th place, below Aloha. Poltergeist's total domestic cume sits at $38.2M.

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Last Weekend

'Tomorrowland' Takes Sleepy Memorial Weekend




This Weekend in Past Years:

• 2014 - 'Maleficent' Casts Box Office Spell, 'Million Ways' Dies

• 2013 - 'Fast' Falls, Magicians Makes Will Smith Disappear

• 2012 - 'Snow White' Takes Big Bite Out of Box Office Apple

• 2011 - 'First Class' Ranks Last Among 'X-Men'• 2010 - 'Shrek' Reigns Over Meager Parade Again

• 2009 - 'Up' Lifts Pixar to Tenth Smash

• 2007 - 'Pirates' Sinks, 'Knocked Up' Scores

• 2006 - Exes Exceed 'X-Men'

• 2005 - 'Cinderella Man' Pulls a Punch, 'Madagascar' Claims Weekend Title

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