This is the rare July 4th weekend that doesn't include a single summer blockbuster, at least in terms of budget and scope. And so it was fairly easy for Transformers: Age of Extinction to hold on to the top spot, the first film of 2014 to repeat, even though it dropped 63% from last week. After two weeks Michael Bay's fourth crack at the Transformers has sparked $575M worldwide, a good chunk of that coming from China, and there's every reason to think it will surpass $1B as 'Dark of the Moon' did.
2. Tammy- $21.1M/$32.9M
The top new release this week was Tammy, which features Melissa McCarthy doing the same thing she's been doing for a few years now, namely crashing into things and putting herself down. While the film will come in just short of the debuts for Identity Thief and The Heat, those movies came with some pretty big co-stars while this is entirely a McCarthy effort, meaning people bought tickets just to see her. And at a cost of only $20M the film is already in the black even if it underwhelms overall.
3. Deliver Us from Evil- $9.5M/$15M
This has not been the strongest year for horror movies, coming off the red-hot streak of genre movies in 2013, but Scott Derrickson's Deliver Us from Evil is off to a pretty good start. The Eric Bana/Edgar Ramirez exorcism thriller opened up with $15M since its debut on Wednesday, and at a cost of only $30M it should prove successful enough for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Hopefully this convinces Marvel to cast Ramirez in Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange movie. Yes please?
4. 22 Jump Street- $9.4M/$158.8M
5. How to Train your Dragon 2- $8.7M/$140M
6. Earth to Echo- $8.2M/$13.5M
The E.T. meets The Goonies sci-fi flick Earth to Echo didn't get a ton of marketing hype and its biggest star is The X-factor breakout Astro, but it opened with a solid $13.5M over five days. While that may not sound like much it's probably all or mostly profit for the low budget feature, which Relativity bought (nearly completed, too) from Disney on the cheap some time back.
7. Maleficent- $6.1M/$213.8M
8. Jersey Boys- $5.1M/$36.7M
9. Think Like a Man Too- $4.9M/$57.1M
10. Edge of Tomorrow- $3.6M/$90.8M
