1. Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation- $29.4M/$108.6M
Normally, the arrival of a big summer superhero film sends other studios scattering to the winds, and holdover films taking huge weekend drops. Not so in this case as Paramount's Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation held strong opposite the debuting Fantastic Four. 'Rogue Nation' slid only 47% and earned another $29.4M, It doesn't seem to be on quite the same $209M domestic pace of 'Ghost Protocol', or its $700M worldwide tally, but 'Rogue Nation' is doing well enough that we'll be seeing Tom Cruise on another mission soon.
2. Fantastic Four (review here)- $26.2M
When the common question emerging out of Fantastic Four's debut is "When is Fox going to sell the rights back to Marvel?", you know there's a problem. The much-maligned Fantastic Four reboot took a clobberin' only Ben Grimm could love, opening well below analyst projections with $26.2M. To compare, y'know how everybody talks about how bad those 2005/2007 Fantastic Four movies were? Well, this one by Josh Trank is probably going to do worse when all is said and done, and as noted in my review, at least those old films resembled the superheroes comic book fans are familiar with. Trank's version is closer to what he did with Chronicle, which is a great film but not what a Fantastic Four movie should be. It'll be interesting to see where Fox goes with this franchise now, as the director scrambles to distance himself and the producers do the same. A sequel had already been lined up for 2017 but not even Reed Richards could reach for a logical reason for that to happen now.
3. The Gift (review here)- $12M
Built largely on incredibly strong reviews and genuine word-of-mouth buzz, Joel Edgerton's twisty thriller The Gift nabbed $12M. It's arguably the biggest surprise of the week as the marketing has been quiet in order to maintain the film's secrets, of which there are many. Edgerton wrote, directed, and stars in the film alongside Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, with the budget only costing around $5M. In other words, this one's looking like a solid mid-range hit.
4. Vacation- $9.1M/$37.3M
The Vacation sequel righted the course after a soft debut weekend, only dropping 38% in week two. Is it enough to buy the Griswolds another vacation? Only time will tell.
5. Ant-Man- $7.8M/$147.4M
6. Minions- $7.3M/$302.7M
7. Ricki and the Flash (review here)- $7M
Not even Meryl Streep as a hard rocker was enough to get audiences, or exhibitors for that matter, interested in Ricki and the Flash. The Jonathan Demme-directed dramedy opened with only $7M, far below Streep's usual standard, but more surprising is that it only played in 1600 theaters. By comparison, The Gift, which is a small film by any measure, opened in 2500 theaters. This one slipped into an odd spot for a Streep movie. We're so accustomed to everything she does being an instant awards contender, but Ricki and the Flash arrives at the tail end of summer, and Streep's role doesn't look Oscar-worthy. So audiences may have just decided this looked like a throwaway Streep effort and decided to wait for it to arrive on DVD.
8. Trainwreck- $6.2M/$91M
9. Southpaw- $4.7M/$40.7M
10. Shaun the Sheep Movie (review here)- $4M/$5.5M
Opening on Wednesday, Lionsgate's stop-motion comedy Shaun the Sheep got sheared with only $5.5M. The film is based on the long-running TV series that was a spinoff of Wallace & Gromit, which also had a popular movie a decade (!!!) ago. Despite mostly positive reviews, Shaun the Sheep didn't connect with audiences in the same way, but at least it remains a hit overseas with $57M. That may not help Lionsgate
