The Box Office Thread

Wow. People will pay to see anything based on a fairy tale won't they?

Indeed.

The Divergent Series: Insurgent was #1 this weekend with $54 million. At #2 is Cinderella with $34 million and a 2-week total of $122 million.

Opening on Friday is Get Hard with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, and DreamWorks' Home.

*Families.

I've always hated family film opening weekends. If it's something people can take their kids to, they usually do. The only exceptions are if the films are too tightly released.

Frizzo the Clown - Raise your kid well, you hear?

Not strictly box office (I don't think anyway) but it was a joy to see Interstellar live at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday, a performance that sold out weeks ago. Out of all the 5,000+ spectators there was the widest mix of attendees I'd ever seen - a mixture you only usually catch at Spielberg/Cameron epics.

Everyone was en-rapt by the pre-film science chat and KIp Thorne's powerpoint slides explaining the wormhole and the tesseract... this gives me hope for both movies and people in general. We want more of this. Nolan can't be the only one to make major blockbusters that make you think for more that 15 minutes after the credits roll.

The Thing about them since fast 4 is that they became more then a racing movie. They happen to have fast and muscle cars in the movies but really its more or less based around a core group of people who are kinda family. Even the Rocks character is more or less a member of the friends group he just is more of a visiting inlaw.

In only two weeks, Furious 7 has made $252 million domestically and $800 million worldwide.

Remember when this franchise was dead after Tokyo Drift?

You should watch it for the Latina's.

That was fast... And furious

The Avengers: Age of Ulton opened to $201.2 million internationally. 

Between the lukewarm reception and the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight, Avengers: Age of Ultron didn't open as big as most people anticipated. It was tracking to open with over $200 million domestically, but had to settle with $187 million. That's okay, I guess. The movie has another weekend to itself until the competition shows up.

Now that we're two weeks into the summer blockbuster season, I'm gonna introduce a new feature.

THIS WEEK IN BOX OFFICE HISTORY

10 years ago... the summer blockbuster season didn't begin till May 6th when Doomsday 's favorite movie, Kingdom of Heaven, opened at #1 with $19.6 million. A lot has changed in a decade.

15 years ago... another Doomsday favorite... Gladiator opened at #1 on May 5th through 7th with $34.8 million. I actually watched this movie on opening day with my uncle. We both thought it was Braveheart-esque. Doomsday was of course a HUGE fan and joined the ComingSoon.net forums to discuss the movie with people who actually wanted to discuss movies. A lot has changed in a decade and a half.

25 years ago... the summer blockbuster season didn't begin till Memorial Day weekend but I want to point out that the #1 and #2 movies from May 4th through 6th were Pretty Woman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Both movies had been in theaters for almost two months at that point and both are guilty pleasures for SnoBorderZero .

30 years ago... the #1 movie at the box office was Chuck Norris' Code of Silence. I kid you not. It was #1 for three weeks. Sadly, the movie will never air on Turner Classic Movies so PG Cooper will never see it.

35 years ago... Friday the 13th was released on May 9th. That's right. The 35th anniversary of Friday the 13th is tomorrow and it launched the neverending saga of Dracula wasting his October's.