Big robots and blue-collar slapstick are the winners in holiday slump
Hollywood typically counts on the long July 4th weekend to drive big U.S. box-office, but with the holiday falling on a Friday this year and most of the new/recent features having poor-to-tepid reviews the overall take is expected to be 40% down from last year.
The nominal “winner,” as expected, was Transformers: Age of Extinction; which will bank about $38 million for the weekend. That’s a steep 74% drop from its opening day (even worse than Amazing Spider-Man 2, whose 72% second week plunge still has Sony execs in panic mode this Summer) though the film is still riding high on its record-setting bow in China.
The Melissa McCarthy road comedy Tammy, about a recently-unemployed woman who attempts to escape a string of hard luck through a road trip with her alcoholic grandmother, will land in 2nd place with around $21 million. Not a bad haul for a low-budget feature, but with a dismal C+ from audience poll Cinemascore it’s widely expected to sink quickly on poor word of mouth. Still, McCarthy’s stature as a box-office star is secure; with the secret-agent spoof Spy and the animated B.O.O: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations both set to hit in 2015.
Other new releases, including the cops & exorcists shocker Deliver Us From Evil and the kiddie adventure Earth to Echo are performing anemically, are are expected to fight for 4th and 5th place behind a still strong 22 Jump Street.
With almost no major release showing especially strong legs, the highly-anticipated sequel Dawn of The Planet of The Apes is widely expected to become the new box-office champ next week.
Source: Deadline
