‘Ghostbusters’ Sets Career-Highs for Feig, McCarthy
While the Ghostbusters reboot pulled in the fifth largest opening of summer, it wasn’t enough to dethrone The Secret Life of Pets from a second weekend on top of the weekend box office. Illumination’s animated flick added another estimated $50.6 million over the weekend.
Illumination Entertainment has scored its fourth $200 million hit in The Secret Life of Pets. And it’s only the fifth animated film ever to pass $200 million in 10 days or less. It joins Finding Dory, Toy Story 3, Minions and Shrek the Third, all of which broke $300 million. There’s no reason not to doubt that Pets do exactly that. Next week, Ice Age: Collision Course opens up. While the fifth film in the Ice Age franchise might take a little money away from Pets, it’s not going to be a repeat of the Dory and Pets showdown from last weekend. After that, there’s no other animated films until Kubo and the Two Strings in August. That too won’t deny Pets from the $300 million milestone.
Ghostbusters couldn’t take the top spot this weekend from The Secret Life of Pets, but its $46 million opening was still a major success for Sony. Ghostbusters is director Paul Feig’s largest debut, surpassing Bridesmaids ($26.2 million), The Heat ($39.1 million) and Spy ($29.1 million). It’s also a record-high for Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig (as a lead). All around, between the 180 degree reception and box office success, Sony couldn’t ask for a better weekend. While next weekend will be packed with a trifecta of Star Trek Beyond, Ice Age: Collision Course and Lights Out, Ghostbusters should still be able to hold decently on its way to the century mark.
Falling about the same as last weekend, David Yates’ The Legend of Tarzan dipped one spot to third. The Warner film edged out Finding Dory, claiming $11.1 million in its third weekend. Now over $100 million, Tarzan has passed the century park much faster than other tentpoles like Independence Day: Resurgence. Tarzan is still shooting for a finish around $120-130 million, which is much more than most pundits could have projected a month ago.
The Secret Life of Pets continues to hurt Finding Dory’s legs for the second weekend in a row. The Pixar blockbuster dropped one spot from last weekend, but fell another 47%, grossing $11 million in its fifth frame. In comparison, last year’s Inside Out dipped a mere 34.7% in week 5. Granted Inside Out also didn’t have the massive $135 million opening either, which added to Dory’s slightly frontloaded run. On the plus side though, Finding Dory did become the highest-grossing animated film ever, topping Shrek 2’s $441.2 million run. It’s taken 12 years to bring down the ogre sequel. Now that Dory’s hit that milestone, $450 million shouldn’t be to far behind. $500 million, however, will be a bit too much of climb with 40%+ drops.
Rounding out the top 5 this week is Fox’s comedy, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates with $7.5 million. Down 54.9% from last weekend, Mike and Dave dropped slightly more than its sophomore counterpart, The Secret Life of Pets. With the release of Ghostbusters, that’s not a bad decline as $40-42 million seems to be where it’s heading. For Zac Efron, it’ll surpass his other 2016 film, Dirty Grandpa ($35.6 million), but fall short of Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising ($55.3 million).
Ghostbusters opened a few notches below my $48 mililon Thursday prediction.
Note: These #’s are based on Sunday’s projections and can change with Monday’s actual #’s.
#1 – The Secret Life of Pets (1)
$50.6 million / $203.1 million total
#2 – Ghostbusters (NR)
$46.0 million / $46.0 million total
#3 – The Legend of Tarzan (2)
$11.1 million / $103.1 million total
#4 – Finding Dory (3)
$11.0 million / $445.5 million total
#5 – Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (4)
$7.5 million / $31.2 million total
Opening Next Week: Star Trek Beyond, Ice Age: Collision Course, Lights Out
Source: Box Office Mojo
