1. Spy (review here)- $30M
While Melissa McCarthy's truly great action-comedy Spy opened with a solid $30M, it's kind of experiencing the same thing that happened with Mad Max: Fury Road. The film turned out to be so good that our box office expectations skyrocketed, and so these numbers look pretty disappointing. It's a lower opening than last year's buddy comedy The Heat, which had the benefit of Sandra Bullock as co-star, and the abysmal Identity Thief, which co-starred Jason Bateman. But, thankfully, it's a good deal better than the $21M debut of Tammy, the last film in which McCarthy was the unquestioned star. Spy wasn't helped by a promo campaign that made it look like all of those other awful McCarthy films, and one has to wonder if audiences stayed away because of that. At a $65M budget this film isn't in any danger of tanking, and likely the strong reviews and good word-of-mouth will carry it far. This is one time where it's okay to recommend everybody run out and see a McCarthy comedy.
2. San Andreas- $26.4M/$99M
The powerhouse duo of Dwayne Johnson and director Brad Peyton have a ground-shaking hit with San Andreas, which slipped 52% from last week but is knocking at the door of $100M domestically and is performing like gangbusters overseas. Expect to see these two pair up again soon and probably very often after that.
3. Insidious: Chapter 3 (review here)- $23M
The big horror flick of the week was the prequel, Insidious: Chapter 3, which scared up a solid $23M, another low-budget success story for the folks at Blumhouse. This one saw a number of changes that should have derailed it. First off, gone is director James Wan, replaced by Insidious and Saw writer Leigh Whannell. Second, gone are stars Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson, with Lin Shaye's reluctant psychic Elise moved up as the lead character. While this debut is still less than the $40M opening of Insidious: Chapter 2, it's considerably better than the $13M of the first film. Both had long legs and performed extremely well, and there's every reason to think this one will, as well.
4. Entourage (review here)- $10.4M/$17.8M
Entourage managed to hug out $17.8M, but that's after an early Wednesday release. The film is a continuation of HBO's hit series that ended after eight seasons, and apparently only the fans turned out to see it. That's not without a concerted effort to hype the vast array of celebrity cameos to lure in curious bystanders, a necessity since none of the show's stars (with the possible exception of Jeremy Piven) are really known commodities. Did you care about Adrien "Drive Me Crazy" Grenier before Entourage? Probably not. Not surprisingly, the film played almost exclusively to guys, another facet that definitely hurt the $30M project. I'm wondering what the expectations were for this film to begin with? I loved Entourage, but never took it as the cultural touchstone that a series like Sex and the City was. A movie never made much sense to me, and while it was great in my opinion, I never felt like it was going to do much business.
5. Mad Max: Fury Road- $7.9M/$130.8M
George Miller's unquestioned post-apocalyptic masterpiece surpassed the $300M mark worldwide, making this quite the lovely day indeed.
6. Pitch Perfect 2- $7.7M/$161M
7. Tomorrowland- $7M/$76.2M
8. Avengers: Age of Ultron- $6.2M/$438M
9. Aloha- $3.3M/$16.3M
Oof. After a rather icy greeting last week, Cameron Crowe's maligned Aloha fell 66% in week two for just $3.3M. There's no other way to put it; this film was a disaster straight up and down. Not only has it stirred up bad mojo with Hawaiian locals over the lily-white casting, but critics despised the film, Sony execs didn't like it, and audiences didn't show up despite the starry cast. This is a pretty swift kick in the teeth for Bradley Cooper after all of that American Sniper hype.
10. Poltergeist- $2.8M/$44.4M
