It's rare that a film leaps back into first place after four weeks of release, but that's what Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy has done. The remarkably long-legged film slipped 31% and has surpassed Transformers: Age of Extinction as the top earner for the season. It's also only $6M shy of passing Captain America: The Winter Soldier as the top domestic film of the year. And Marvel thought it may be their first dud! Ha! Overall it still lags behind 'Winter Soldier' and its $700M worldwide total but Guardians of the Galaxy has to be Marvel's greatest success story.
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- $16.8M/$145.6M
3. If I Stay- $16.3M
The top new release of the week was If I Stay, another one of those YA adaptations audiences love so much. This one has been compared to The Fault in Our Stars, mainly because they both involve a teen romance met with medical complications, but the truth is If I Stay was never expected to be on the same level. So when one looks at the meager $11M budget and Chloe Grace Moretz as the only marketable name that $16.3M debut isn't all that bad.
4. Let's Be Cops- $11M/$45.2M
Quick name one person in Let's Be Cops. No big stars, but smart marketing has turned this lowbrow buddy comedy into a surprising hit. So where's the sequel announcement?
5. When the Game Stands Tall- $9M
In a year that has seen faith-based movies assert a certain box office dominance, When the Game Stands Tall's $9M is pretty weak. But if the football drama, which stars Jim "Jesus Christ" Caviezel, Laura Dern, and Michael Chiklis, performs like the studio's other efforts (Fireproof, Soul Surfer) it won't need a big weekend to be successful. These movies have shown extraordinary staying power, and maybe it will get an added boost with the NFL season on the verge of kickoff.
6. The Giver- $6.7M/$24.1M
7. The Expendables 3- $6.6M/$27.5M
8. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For- $6.4M
Oof. Audiences weren't exactly dying for Robert Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which opened with a dismal $6.4M. Perhaps it was the eternal 9-year wait after the groundbreaking 2005 film, which opened with $29M and went on to earn $158M worldwide, not bad for a dark and brooding adaptation of a non-superhero comic. But one of the problems faced by the sequel, and this is something I've mentioned numerous times on the site, is that technology has changed by leaps and bounds over the years and Sin City 2 looked dated by comparison. So while adding new names like Eva Green and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were a big plus, the marketing can't really focus on them because of the vignette-style of the movie itself. With Rodriguez and Frank Miller already talking up a Sin City 3 they're going to need to pull huge international numbers to justify it.
9. The Hundred-Foot Journey- $5.5M/$32.7M
10. Into the Storm- $3.8M/$38.3M
