A pretty interesting and almost fascinating summer at the box office continued this weekend, with the blockbuster Neill Blomkamp sci-fi thriller Elysium opening strong to the tune of $30.4 million. That upped its total worldwide gross to just over $40 million, which is a little more than a third of the original budget of $115 million. Of course, what makes this summer so interesting is that while this weekend was a good sign for the Matt Damon dystopian future tale, it doesn’t mean that Elysium is a guaranteed hit, not with the way several blockbusters have performed thus far.
For example, now in its third week, The Wolverine has grossed $306 million worldwide thanks to a huge foreign performance, but the significantly better alternative to X-Men Origins: Wolverine has only earned $111 million in the U.S. to date. Meanwhile, Despicable Me 2 has crushed its $76 million budget by earning an absurd $745 million worldwide ($338 million domestic), but someone poured sugar in the gas tank of the non-sequel Turbo, as it has barely earned back its $135 million budget while leaving its left-turn blinker on.
Of course, no duds are dudding harder than this year’s almighty duds, The Lone Ranger and RIPD, both of which stood at the corner of an intersection and begged for another $297,000 and $459,000 respectively this weekend. As for the rest of the debuts and beyond…
For comedies, We’re the Millers looks to be a hit despite negative reviews, while the star power of 2 Guns has failed to earn back its small budget in the first two weeks, making it one of the more surprising action disappointments thus far.
But back to those duds, The Lone Ranger actually brought its worldwide gross to $196 million ($87 million American) to get it closer to even on that disastrous budget of $215 million. Damn all those critics for telling people that it was awful before everyone was stupid enough to find out on their own. That leaves RIPD’s $55 million worldwide gross on a budget of $130 million as the captain of the poop dinghy.
There’s still plenty of time, but between Turbo and RIPD, it’s really looking like the summer of suck for Ryan Reynolds.
Oh shut up, like Hollywood will stop giving your abs work.
(Chart via Box Office Mojo, GIF via)