Box Office Report: You Failed!

We had a pretty neat opportunity over the weekend film going audience. Pacific Rim, a phenomenal summer block buster that didn’t rely on existing IP, was going up against the scourge of cinemadom, Grown Ups 2.  A win for the former could signal a turning point in the battle between lowest common denominator and inventiveness. Instead Grown Ups made more than it’s predecessor and Pacific Rim settles for 3rd place. We all screwed the pooch on this one people.

But before we get into that, lets give props where props are due. Despicable Me 2 continues its dominating run by coming in first place against both newcomers this weekend. The $44 Million dollar weekend represents a great 46.4% drop proving that the interest in Gru and his minions is not as front loaded as some had suspected. The movie is homing in on mega-hit territory and should finish it’s run well over $300 Million.

But that’s not why we are here people.

Coming in second place was Grown Ups 2 to a total of over $42 million. I think we might now have that pesky question to the life, the universe and everything Douglas Adams wrote a whole lot about. How many millions are people willing to fork over opening weekend to a lazy, low brow ‘family comedy’? 42!

Now this is not to say Pacific Rim had a terrible weekend. Quite the opposite in fact, the movie made more than any Guillermo Del Toro movie on an opening weekend, and the international numbers are looking to be very strong. However, a solid opening behind the screaming monkey turd of Grown Ups 2 demonstrates a failure for this vocal minority to steam the tides at the box office.

The good news is the movie was not a bomb, so at least there is that. But the status quo remains and the battle for the box office will be fought again in the future with crap like Grown Ups 2 still having the higher ground.

Next Weekend: Red 2 and R.I.P.D., and Comic-Con distracting a large segment of both film’s target audience… good call studios!