San Andreas and The Rock Shake Up the Box Office

After one of the worst Memorial Day weekends in nearly 14 years, the box office rebounded with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s biggest movie as a solo star, New Line and Warner Bros.’ disaster flick San Andreas, co-starring Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Paul Giamatti and Archie Punjabi, which opened in 3,777 theaters on Friday. After scoring $3.1 million in Thursday previews, the movie blew up with $18.2 million on Friday on its way to an estimated $53.2 million, or $14,085 per theater for the weekend. It’s Johnson’s biggest opening movie outside the “Fast and Furious” franchise, topping previous best G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and it received a good “A-” CinemaScore with 3D making up 44% of its opening weekend. It added another $60 million internationally in 60 overseas markets with Mexico scoring $10 million and the UK grossing $6.7 million in their opening weekends.

Second place went to Pitch Perfect 2 for a second weekend in a row with $14.8 million, down 52% from Memorial Day weekend with $147.5 million grossed domestically in three weeks.  Overseas, it has grossed $80.7 million bringing its global total to $228 million. That’s close to twice the global gross of the original Pitch Perfect in 2012 in just a little over three weeks.

Brad Bird’s sci-fi adventure Tomorrowland (Disney), starring George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie and Raffey Cassidy, dropped to third place with $13.8 million, down 58% from its opening Memorial Day weekend, with $63.2 million grossed so far domestically. It added another $29.3 million internationally, including its first days opening in China, to bring its international total to $70 million and worldwide to $133 million.

George Miller’s well-reviewed apocalyptic action flick Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, added $13.6 million (down 45%) in its third weekend, dropping to fourth place with a domestic total of $116 million. 

Already the highest-grossing movie of the year domestically, Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Age of Ultron (Disney) took in another $10.8 million to take fifth place for a domestic total of $427 million and with another $17.6 million grossed internationally this weekend, that brings its worldwide total to $1.3 billion, still trailing behind Furious 7. 

The other new movie of the weekend, Cameron Crowe’s Aloha, starring Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Alec Baldwin and Bill Murray, opened in 2,815 theaters. With some of Crowe’s worst reviews of his career, it didn’t attract much of an audience, opening in sixth place with just $10 million, or $3,552 per theater. (Note: We originally had this weekend estimate listed incorrectly.)

The horror remake Poltergeist (MGM/Fox) took a massive 65% plunge in its second weekend, dropping to seventh place with $7.8 million for a total of $38.3 million in ten days.

Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara’s comedy Hot Pursuit (MGM/New Line/WB),  Far from the Madding Crowd (Fox Searchlight), starring Carey Mulligan, and DreamWorks Animation’s Home took eighth through tenth place with less than $2 million each.

The box office was down nearly $30 million from the same weekend last year when Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent opened with $69 million, while Seth McFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West opened in third place with $16.8 million.