What news could possibly improve a Memorial Day Weekend? Well, how about the news that Adam Sandler might actually have to start trying harder. His latest paid vacation, to Africa, in Blended, earned just $14.25 million from Friday-Sunday, a “somewhat shocking whiff” and his second worst opening for a Sandler-starring Happy Madison movie ever (behind That’s My Boy‘s $13.45m in 2012) — though the budget was smaller ($40-45 million for Blended vs. $70 million for That’s My Boy). Regardless, I’m going to go ahead and declare this a victory for anyone who doesn’t enjoy Drew Barrymore puking French onion soup in a movie trailer.
Of course, it should be noted that Blended received an A- Cinemascore, as the folks who lined up to see Drew Barrymore puke French onion soup were indeed rewarded with Drew Barrymore puking French onion soup. Warner Bros president of distribution (WB distributed Blended) blamed “good weather across the country” for keeping people away from the theater. Uh huh, sure, buddy, it was definitely the weather and not the soup-puking, whatever you say.
Meanwhile, X-Men: Days of Future Past earned $261 million worldwide. Internationally speaking, it was the biggest X-Men opening ever, and opened bigger than any Fox film ever, including Avatar. Domestically speaking, it didn’t beat Ratner’s X-Men movie, and adjusted for inflation was behind X2.
In North America, Days of Future Past scored the fifth-best Memorial Day opening of all time after Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($139.8 million), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($126.9 million), X-Men: The Last Stand ($122.9 million) and last year’s Fast & Furious 6 ($117 million). [HollywoodReporter]
X-Men: Days of Future Past has earned $90.7 million on its first weekend of release, with a projected Memorial Day four-day debut of $108m. That total that includes $8.1m worth of Thursday previews. That’s a lower opening than the 2006 debut of X-Men: The Last Stand, which earned $102m Fri-Sun and $124m Fri-Mon over its Memorial Day debut. Heck, adjusted for inflation, it’s a smaller Fri-Sun debut than X2: X-Men United ($85m back in 2003) about on par with X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($85m in 2009) and X-Men ($54m in 2000, which would be about $80m today without any 3D bump). [Forbes]
Comparisons aside, the bottom line is, Fox made lots of money and will almost undoubtedly continue to make X-Men movies.
Elsewhere, Godzilla surpassed the Roland Emmerich Godzilla, Jon Favreau’s Chef crept into the top 10 despite playing on fewer than 500 screens (why is this movie getting so few screens again?), and Frozen has now surpassed Iron Man 3 as 2013’s highest grossing movie, with $1.219 billion. I still don’t know what it’s about. Snowmen, or some shit?
Anyway, enjoy your barbecues, and join us next week to talk about the live-action Family Guy Western, A Million Ways To Die In The West, and the Maleficent, the story of Angelina Jolie’s cheekbones.