1. Finding Dory- $73.2M/$286.5M
Pixar's Finding Dory only sank 45% from last week and earned another $73M for a $286.5M domestic haul, while worldwide it's risen to $396M. And this wasn't exactly a guaranteed two-week run at the top spot, not with the blockbuster-sized Independence Day: Resurgence nipping at its heels. But as it turns out, Pixar is a lot tougher than a fleet of alien invaders any day.
2. Independence Day: Resurgence (review here)- $41.6M
So much for declaring one's independence. Roland Emmerich's Independence Day: Resurgence opened with a disastrous domestic total of only $41M; pretty awful for the $165M sequel. However, the rest of the world has come to the rescue with $102M giving it $143M for the weekend, and that doesn't look too bad. While the original 1996 film was unquestionably a flag-waving patriotic humans vs. aliens flick, the $800M is ended up with was powered by over $500M in foreign receipts, so this is actually par for the course. Now, the U.S. numbers are considerably lower, of course. The first film opened on July 4th weekend with $50M over three days and $104M over six, but it used genuinely strong buzz, propelled by the holiday, to hang around for the long haul. This one doesn't have that benefit, nor does it have Will Smith to bank on. Sorry Jeff Goldblum fans, but nobody else is paying to see him be quirky and astute.Who knows how this will affect any hopes for a sequel. Obviously the prospects aren't good right now, but the film clearly sets up an intergalactic showdown of some kind. Maybe in another twenty years?
3. Central Intelligence- $18.3M/$69.3M
4. The Shallows (review here)- $16.7M
Other than Independence Day: Resurgence the film that looked the most like your typical summer offering was The Shallows, and clearly audiences were ready to hit the beach for some sun with Blake Lively. The $17M shark thriller nearly hit its production budget on the first week, which is far more than analysts projected. Clearly they underestimated the strength of Lively as a box office draw, perhaps forgetting how she carried The Age of Adaline to $65M when nobody expected that film to do anything. They may have also underestimated the audience need for a simple, clearly-defined movie that everybody could get behind. A girl tries not to get eaten by a shark; easy peasy. Unfortunately Sony will probably do exactly the wrong thing and push ahead on a sequel with a different lead, rather than just accepting this is a one-off hit and going away happy
5. Free State of Jones (review here)- $7.77M
Apparently nobody wants to see Matthew McConaughey do anything in the Civil War, because Free State of Jones bombed with only $7.7M. The film was directed by Gary Ross, no stranger to blockbuster movies as director of Seabiscuit and The Hunger Games, but those films had the benefit of solid reviews. This one didn't, and McConaughey isn't enough to attract audiences on his own. There was also the problem of positioning, as STX Entertainment dropped this very serious race-based drama in the middle of summer, perhaps expecting it looked sufficiently Braveheart-esque to attract audiences looking for an escape. But nope, nobody bought it, and those who did were disappointed.
6. The Conjuring 2- $7.7M/$86.9M
7. Now You See Me 2- $5.6M/$52M
8. X-Men: Apocalypse- $2.47M/$151.1M
9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows- $2.4M/$77.1M
10. Alice Through the Looking Glass- $2.1M/$74.5M
The most amazing thing about this is that it knocked Warcraft out of the top 10 after only 3 weeks.
