'War for the Planet of the Apes' Plays More Like 'Rise' Than 'Dawn' with $56.5M Debut
Fox's War for the Planet of the Apes delivered a #1 finish this weekend, opening a bit higher than the studio's conservative expectations, though well below Mojo's aggressive, pre-weekend forecast. Meanwhile, Spider-Man: Homecoming dipped more than 60% in its second weekend and The Big Sick delivered decent numbers in its expansion, though, once again below Mojo's forecast. In fact, the same goes for the modest expectations for Broad Green's Wish Upon, as the PG-13 horror fell short of $6 million over its first three days in release.
Playing more like Rise of the Planet of the Apes than Dawn, Fox's War for the Planet of the Apes delivered an estimated $56.5 million this weekend from 4,022 theaters. That's a little over a million more than Rise opened with back in 2011 and well below the $72.6 million Dawn delivered in its 2014 opening. Fortunately, War is carrying a budget $20 million lighter than Dawn, but the $150 million production still cost over $50 million more than Rise's $93 million price tag.
Audience demographics show the film playing to an audience that was 57% male versus 43% female, of which 63% were 25 years or older. Of the overall audience, 48% were Caucasian, 20% African American, 18% Hispanic and 10% Asian. Opening day audiences gave the film an "A-" CinemaScore, the same score received by both of its predecessors.
Looking ahead, while the opening may look a lot like that for Rise of the Apes, it seems unlikely the final domestic haul will live up to the $176.7 million that film ultimately delivered, despite the best reviews in the franchise. Just compare to last year's Star Trek Beyond, which also received strong reviews but could still only muster a $59 million debut compared to the $70 million debut for Star Trek Into Darkness. Ultimately, Star Trek Beyond went on to bring in just shy of $160 million domestically for a 2.68x multiplier. A similar run for War of the Apes would end in a domestic run just over $150 million.
GET MORE: Compare War for the Planet of the Apes' opening with similar openings for franchise sequels!
Internationally, the film brought in an estimated $46 million from 61 markets. Among the openings, the UK lead the way with an estimated $9.5 million debut followed by Russia ($5m) and Spain ($3.4m). By comparison, Dawn debuted with $14.8 million in the UK ($11.2m at today's exchange rates), $9.8 million in Russia ($6.1m at today's exchange rate) and $4.6 million in Spain ($3.9m at today's exchange rate) as Apes fever seems to be down across the globe.
Finishing in second is Sony's Spider-Man: Homecoming, which dropped 61% in its second weekend with an estimated $45.2 million as its domestic cume know grows to over $208 million in its first ten days of release.
Internationally, Spider-Man delivered an estimated $72.3 million this weekend, bringing its overseas cume to $261 million and worldwide tally just shy of $470 million. Among new openings this weekend, the film debuted at #1 in France with an estimated $6 million and at #2 in Germany with an estimated $3.7 million. The film still has openings in Belgium, Spain, Japan and China upcoming.
Universal and Illumination's Despicable Me 3 finished in third with an estimated $18.9 million as its domestic cume is now just shy of $188 million. Internationally the animated feature crossed $400 million with an estimated $71 million from 61 territories this weekend for a global cume totaling $619.4 million.
TriStar's Baby Driver kept on rolling this weekend, dropping just 33% in its third weekend in release for an estimated $8.75 million bringing its domestic cume to $73.1 million.
Rounding out the top five is Lionsgate and Amazon's release of The Big Sick, which expanded into 2,597 theaters (+2,271) and delivered an estimated $7.6 million bringing the film's domestic cume to $16 million. This is a well short of Mojo's optimistic forecast, but still a decent performance for the rom-com. The true test will be to see how the film holds on looking ahead as it performed incredibly well in limited release and will now turn to word of mouth to carry itself through the coming weeks.
Wonder Woman enjoyed the smallest drop (29.9%) in the top ten, finishing just outside the top five in the film's seventh week in release, delivering an estimated $6.9 million weekend. That puts the film's domestic total over $380 million as it inches closer to topping the domestic run of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($386.5m). Internationally, Wonder Woman brought in an estimated $3.3 million from 61 markets, bringing the film's overseas cume to $384.2 million for a global tally just shy of $765 million. The film has still yet to open in Japan where it will debut on August 25.
It isn't until seventh position that we find Broad Green's Wish Upon, which ran out of wishes and delivered an estimated $5.6 million opening from 2,250 theaters, $2,483 per theater. The film received a "C-" CinemaScore and with three new wide releases hitting theaters next weekend will have to put in some work to remain in the top ten for two weekends in a row.
In limited release Roadside Attractions' Lady Macbeth debuted in five theaters and brought in an estimated $68,813 ($13,763 PTA); Alejandro Jodorowsky's Endless Poetry opened in two locations and debuted with an estimated $28,000; Vertical's Blind opened with $11,700 from 14 locations ($836 PTA); Big World's release of False Confessions in two theaters delivered an estimated $7,670; and Monument's release of Footnotes in one theater resulted in an estimated $5,900.
Next weekend will be interesting as not only will War of the Apes be in its second weekend along with Spider-Man in its third, but two more films vying for mostly the same demographic will be hitting theaters. First among them is the release of Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk into over 3,600 theaters followed by STX's release of Luc Besson's big budget sci-fi feature Valerian into over 3,400 theaters. Cornering it's own little segment of the marketplace, Universal will look to make a splash with the release of the R-rated comedy Girls Trip into ~2,500 locations.
You can check out all of this weekend's estimated results right here and we'll be updating our charts with weekend actuals on Monday afternoon.
Discuss this story with fellow Box Office Mojo fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo and author Brad Brevet at @bradbrevet.
Playing more like Rise of the Planet of the Apes than Dawn, Fox's War for the Planet of the Apes delivered an estimated $56.5 million this weekend from 4,022 theaters. That's a little over a million more than Rise opened with back in 2011 and well below the $72.6 million Dawn delivered in its 2014 opening. Fortunately, War is carrying a budget $20 million lighter than Dawn, but the $150 million production still cost over $50 million more than Rise's $93 million price tag.
Audience demographics show the film playing to an audience that was 57% male versus 43% female, of which 63% were 25 years or older. Of the overall audience, 48% were Caucasian, 20% African American, 18% Hispanic and 10% Asian. Opening day audiences gave the film an "A-" CinemaScore, the same score received by both of its predecessors.
Looking ahead, while the opening may look a lot like that for Rise of the Apes, it seems unlikely the final domestic haul will live up to the $176.7 million that film ultimately delivered, despite the best reviews in the franchise. Just compare to last year's Star Trek Beyond, which also received strong reviews but could still only muster a $59 million debut compared to the $70 million debut for Star Trek Into Darkness. Ultimately, Star Trek Beyond went on to bring in just shy of $160 million domestically for a 2.68x multiplier. A similar run for War of the Apes would end in a domestic run just over $150 million.
GET MORE: Compare War for the Planet of the Apes' opening with similar openings for franchise sequels!
Internationally, the film brought in an estimated $46 million from 61 markets. Among the openings, the UK lead the way with an estimated $9.5 million debut followed by Russia ($5m) and Spain ($3.4m). By comparison, Dawn debuted with $14.8 million in the UK ($11.2m at today's exchange rates), $9.8 million in Russia ($6.1m at today's exchange rate) and $4.6 million in Spain ($3.9m at today's exchange rate) as Apes fever seems to be down across the globe.
Finishing in second is Sony's Spider-Man: Homecoming, which dropped 61% in its second weekend with an estimated $45.2 million as its domestic cume know grows to over $208 million in its first ten days of release.
Internationally, Spider-Man delivered an estimated $72.3 million this weekend, bringing its overseas cume to $261 million and worldwide tally just shy of $470 million. Among new openings this weekend, the film debuted at #1 in France with an estimated $6 million and at #2 in Germany with an estimated $3.7 million. The film still has openings in Belgium, Spain, Japan and China upcoming.
Universal and Illumination's Despicable Me 3 finished in third with an estimated $18.9 million as its domestic cume is now just shy of $188 million. Internationally the animated feature crossed $400 million with an estimated $71 million from 61 territories this weekend for a global cume totaling $619.4 million.
TriStar's Baby Driver kept on rolling this weekend, dropping just 33% in its third weekend in release for an estimated $8.75 million bringing its domestic cume to $73.1 million.
Rounding out the top five is Lionsgate and Amazon's release of The Big Sick, which expanded into 2,597 theaters (+2,271) and delivered an estimated $7.6 million bringing the film's domestic cume to $16 million. This is a well short of Mojo's optimistic forecast, but still a decent performance for the rom-com. The true test will be to see how the film holds on looking ahead as it performed incredibly well in limited release and will now turn to word of mouth to carry itself through the coming weeks.
Wonder Woman enjoyed the smallest drop (29.9%) in the top ten, finishing just outside the top five in the film's seventh week in release, delivering an estimated $6.9 million weekend. That puts the film's domestic total over $380 million as it inches closer to topping the domestic run of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($386.5m). Internationally, Wonder Woman brought in an estimated $3.3 million from 61 markets, bringing the film's overseas cume to $384.2 million for a global tally just shy of $765 million. The film has still yet to open in Japan where it will debut on August 25.
It isn't until seventh position that we find Broad Green's Wish Upon, which ran out of wishes and delivered an estimated $5.6 million opening from 2,250 theaters, $2,483 per theater. The film received a "C-" CinemaScore and with three new wide releases hitting theaters next weekend will have to put in some work to remain in the top ten for two weekends in a row.
In limited release Roadside Attractions' Lady Macbeth debuted in five theaters and brought in an estimated $68,813 ($13,763 PTA); Alejandro Jodorowsky's Endless Poetry opened in two locations and debuted with an estimated $28,000; Vertical's Blind opened with $11,700 from 14 locations ($836 PTA); Big World's release of False Confessions in two theaters delivered an estimated $7,670; and Monument's release of Footnotes in one theater resulted in an estimated $5,900.
Next weekend will be interesting as not only will War of the Apes be in its second weekend along with Spider-Man in its third, but two more films vying for mostly the same demographic will be hitting theaters. First among them is the release of Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk into over 3,600 theaters followed by STX's release of Luc Besson's big budget sci-fi feature Valerian into over 3,400 theaters. Cornering it's own little segment of the marketplace, Universal will look to make a splash with the release of the R-rated comedy Girls Trip into ~2,500 locations.
You can check out all of this weekend's estimated results right here and we'll be updating our charts with weekend actuals on Monday afternoon.
Discuss this story with fellow Box Office Mojo fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo and author Brad Brevet at @bradbrevet.
