Weekend box office: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is #1
Brad Sturdivant
July 13th, 2014
The surprisingly well received DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES easily took the top spot at the weekend box office, beating out last week’s #1 film, TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION. The follow up to 2011’s RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES managed to score about $20 million more than its predecessor by riding the wave of good word of mouth and early, positive buzz from critics. Let’s start guessing about what they’ll call the next Apes movie. Critics also loved Richard Linklater’s BOYHOOD, which had too small of a release to crack the top ten, but was impressive nonetheless with about $300k in only five theaters. I’ve been frustrated the last few years with the way studios are releasing their smaller, heavily buzzed about films since those of us in smaller markets either don’t get a chance to see them, or they don’t hit our town until they’ve already been released on Blu-ray. By all accounts, BOYHOOD is an impressive film and probably deserved better than a limited summer release.
Next week sees the release of the Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz starring comedy, SEX TAPE. The idea looks funny, but I’m not sure the movie is going to capitalize on it enough to make the film enjoyable. Speaking of ideas that weren’t capitalized on, THE PURGE: ANARCHY also comes out next week. The original might have been one of the best ideas and poorest executions I’ve ever seen in a horror movie, but I’m interested to see where they take it in the second one. As for who will take the top spot next week, I’d bet SEX TAPE will beat out DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes $73m
2. Transformers: Age of Extinction $16.5m
3. Tammy $12.9m
4. 22 Jump Street $6.7m
5. How To Train Your Dragon 2 $5.8m
6. Earth To Echo $5.5m
7. Deliver us From Evil $4.7m
8. Maleficent $4.2m
9. Begin Again $2.9m
10. Jersey Boys $2.5m
(Deadline)
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