There’s good news and bad news this weekend for Fox’sMaze Runner: The Scorch Trials. The good news is that the sequel is number one at the box office. The bad news? It’s opening was lower than the first film in the series.The Scorch Trialsearned an estimated $30.3 million from 3,791 locations, compared to the $32.5 million thatThe Maze Runnerclaimed on this same weekend in 2014. That’s a very marginal difference, but considering that most projections hadTrialseasily topping its predecessor, it takes some of the fun out of coming in first.
This year’s box office has been hit and miss for sequels. On the high end we hadAvengers: Age of Ultron,Furious 7, andPitch Perfect 2. But the low end includedTed 2,Magic Mike XXL,Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2and others. Falling somewhere in the middle wasThe Divergent Series: Insurgent. The sequel earned a solid $130.1 million in its domestic run, though that was $20 million less thanDivergentclaimed in 2014.Insurgentdid perform slightly better than its predecessor worldwide, but it also cost more to make so the positives and negatives are pretty well balanced.
That kind of balance is whatThe Scorch Trialsneeds to find. Even assuming the sequel holds well in the weeks to come (a big assumption given its so-so word of mouth), its opening indicates it won’t match the $102.7 million domestic total of the first film. On the other hand,The Maze Runnermade most of its $340.7 million worldwide total overseas. Even with a budget almost twice the size of its predecessor,The Scorch Trialswill be a winner for Fox as long as international audiences prove receptive.
Audiences have not been particularly receptive toJohnny Deppfor some time. The actor’s list of misfires stretches back to 2011 and includesMortdecai– the lowest grossing major release of 2015. It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like the actor’s losing streak is finally over.Black Mass, starring Depp as real-life crime boss Whitey Bulger, took in an estimated $23.3 million from 3,188 locations this weekend. That’s not as high asFriday’s debut indicated, but considering that pre-release projections had the film opening below $20 million, Warner Bros. can still be proud of its second-place finish.
Universal is also feeling good about their box office results this morning – as if the company responsible forFurious 7,Jurassic World, andStraight Outta Comptonneeded more reasons to feel proud this year. As we told you yesterday, the studio decided to launchEveresta bit early - and in premium, large format 3D theatres only. That’s the same way audiences were first introduced toMission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. In that case, the early release was credited with breathing new life into a seemingly worn-out franchise. In its first three days in 545 locations,Everestearned an estimated $7.56 million, or $13,872 per screen. That’s lower than the $12.7 million thatGhost Protocolrealized from 425 screens in 2011, but it beats the $6 million that Universal was expecting only yesterday.
Also new in limited release this weekend was the faith-basedCaptive. Following only weeks behindWar Roomand90 Minutes in Heaven, which also targeted Christian audiences,Captivecame up short. The Paramount feature earned an estimated $1.4 million from 806 locations, or a per-screen average of $1,737. In a more successful limited run,Sicariocaptured the weekend’s highest location average. The early awards contender opened in 6 locations in New York and Los Angeles and earned a reported $65,000 per screen.
Here’s the weekend’s top ten, based on studio estimates:
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
$30,300,000
Black Mass
$23,360,000
$11,350,000
The Perfect Guy
$9,640,000
$7,560,000
$6,250,000
A Walk in the Woods
$2,732,700
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
$2,250,000
Straight Outta Compton
$1,970,000
$1,400,000
