CinemaNerdz

Box Office Weekend: X-Men and Days of Future Past Do Fine in the Present

Seth Paul
Box Office Weekend

While perhaps not the biggest surprise of the Memorial Day weekend, X-Men: Days of Future Past is at least a welcome return to high earnings for the X-Men franchise. At an estimated $111 million for the four-day weekend, it did not surpass the earnings of the third film, X-Men: The Last Stand, but it has surpassed the first film in worldwide gross and likely to earn back its $200 million investment if it continues its performance. Godzilla has almost made back its budget in domestic earnings, an estimated $39.4 million bringing it to $156.8 million in total. However, despite its third-place standing, things are not looking good for the new Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore film Blended; with critical panning and a Memorial Day opening, it only managed an estimated $18.2 million, falling below half of its production costs. While it may still be profitable, it has an uphill battle to fight.

Neighbors may have fallen to fourth with an estimated $17.2 million, but at an $18 million budget, the comedy is not looking too shabby, especially considering it has made $116.9 million domestically, making it one of five films on the list to break the $100 million mark; the other two are The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (estimated $10 million) which has made $187.1 million so far and Rio 2 (estimated $3.3 million), which has brought in $122.3 million. In fact, there are only two movies (other than Blended) on the list that have either not made money yet, or have not reported if they have. Million Dollar Arm still falls short (though just short) of its $25 million price tag with an estimated $8.7 million, while list newcomer Chef, a Jon Favreau starring and directed comedy, enters wide release with an estimated $2.9 million, though with no reported budget to say if the independent film is a financial hit or miss.

While The Other Woman added to its success with an estimated $4.5 million, Heaven is for Real is likely to say goodbye to the top ten box office as a financial winner. With an estimated $2.8 million, it made $86.6 million in six weeks over a $12 million budget.

Weekend Box Office (May 23rd – May 26th)
  1. X-Men: Days of Future Past…$111 million
  2. Godzilla…$39.4 million
  3. Blended…$18.2 million
  4. Neighbors…$17.2 million
  5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2…$10 million
  6. Million Dollar Arm…$8.7 million
  7. The Other Woman…$4.5 million
  8. Rio 2…$3.3 million
  9. Chef…$2.9 million
  10. Heaven is for Real…$4.4 million

All numbers based on the four day Memorial Day weekend estimates.

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."
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