LOS ANGELES -- Though Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema's The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case ghosted all of its competition at last weekend's box office, all eyes are on the performance of Universal/Legendary's Warcraft. Though the video game adaptation grossed only a modest sum in the U.S and Canada, given its hefty production budget, the picture's international numbers wildly made up for it.
Warcraft grossed about $24.2 million in ticket sales in the United States, coming in just shy of analyst projections of $25 million and taking the second-place spot. The film has a $160 million price tag, proving that film adaptations of popular video games (the multiplayer strategy game World of Warcraft is produced by Irvine, Calif.-headquartered publisher Blizzard Entertainment) are still a tough sell in the United States.
Reviews have been decidedly negative for the picture. Yet, as is becoming increasingly common as Hollywood adapts to the global marketplace, the movie's less than stellar debut in the United States is only part of the story.
Prior to last weekend, Warcraft already had $75 million in ticket sales internationally less than two weeks into its rollout. Last week, the picture opened in more international territories, the most prominent of which was China. The five-day opening total in the country was $156 million, breaking China's record for the biggest weekend ever for an international film.
Warcraft marks the latest example of a U.S. flop rescued by the burgeoning international marketplace. Last year's Terminator: Genisys from Paramount was an undeniable disappointment in the States, but a robust international run brought the film's global total to a solid $440 million.
However, the weekend still belonged to Conjuring 2, which pulled in an estimated $40.4 million in the U.S. and Canadian theaters. Slightly surpassing analyst expectations of $35 million to $40 million, the sequel is the largest horror opening since its predecessor The Conjuring's 2013 debut to $41.8 million. It is also the largest horror opening in June, a record previously held by Universal's The Purge, which brought in $34.1 million in 2013.
"This is a terrific weekend for us," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.' distribution chief. "But the real story here is James Wan's incredible ability to touch an audience and inspire a mass audience to hear his story."
Director Wan's $40 million follow-up to his prior horror hit has earned generally positive critic reviews and did well with moviegoers. Seventy-four percent of critics on Rotten Tomatoes favored the picture while audiences gave it an A-minus grade, according to CinemaScore.
Typically, movie sequels have struggled to measure up to the originals at the box office. Though studios have long relied on such retreads to pad their film slates and propel merchandising, this year multiple follow-ups have flopped. The most recent bombs, now termed sequelitis, include Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Walt Disney Co.'s Alice Through the Looking Glass and Universal's Neighbors 2 and The Huntsman: Winter's War. The Conjuring 2 appears to dispel some of that belief, coming in less than $2 million behind the original.
In third place was another sequel, Now You See Me 2, which brought in about $22.4 million domestically. The Lionsgate follow-up to the 2013 sleeper hit about a team of criminal magicians just met the lower end of analyst expectations of $23 million to $25 million.
The film cost about $90 million to make; critics and audiences appear split on their reception of the picture. While moviegoers gave it an A-minus CinemaScore, only 36 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics rated it favorably.
Turtles took the fourth spot in its second week with about $14.4 million. The picture's gross to date is about $61 million.
Rounding out the top five was Fox's X-Men: Apocalypse with about $10 million in its third week. The sequel has grossed about $136.3 million to date.
Of note from other holdovers is the 51 percent drop, according to tracking company comScore, of Warner Bros.' Me Before You. In its second week, the film pulled in about $9 million after a surprising and expectations-surpassing $18.3 million debut.
This week, the new wide releases of Disney's Finding Dory and Warner Bros.' Central Intelligence will battle for the box-office crown.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:
The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case, Warner Bros., $40,406,314, 3,343 locations, $12,087 average, $40,406,314, one week.
Warcraft, Universal, $24,166,110, 3,400 locations, $7,108 average, $24,166,110, one week.
Now You See Me 2, Lionsgate, $22,383,146, 3,232 locations, $6,925 average, $22,383,146, one week.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Paramount, $14,386,565, 4,071 locations, $3,534 average, $60,626,348, two weeks.
X-Men: Apocalypse, 20th Century Fox, $9,915,017, 3,585 locations, $2,766 average, $136,289,212, three weeks.
Me Before You, Warner Bros., $9,038,263, 2,762 locations, $3,272 average, $36,650,841, two weeks.
The Angry Birds Movie, Columbia, $6,550,445, 3,083 locations, $2,125 average, $98,020,068, four weeks.
Alice Through the Looking Glass, Disney, $5,646,012, 2,898 locations, $1,948 average, $62,538,623, three weeks.
Captain America: Civil War, Disney, $4,314,342, 2,101 locations, $2,053 average, $396,871,490, six weeks.
The Jungle Book, Disney, $2,761,034, 1,496 locations, $1,846 average, $352,689,723, nine weeks.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Universal, $2,120,535, 1,581 locations, $1,341 average, $53,088,760, four weeks.
The Nice Guys, Warner Bros., $1,960,130, 1,147 locations, $1,709 average, $32,502,322, four weeks.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Universal, $1,678,730, 2,313 locations, $726 average, $8,310,010, two weeks.
Love & Friendship, Roadside Attractions, $1,404,242, 826 locations, $1,700 average, $9,421,117, five weeks.
The Lobster, A24, $987,794, 560 locations, $1,764 average, $5,552,855, five weeks.
Money Monster, Columbia, $700,810, 731 locations, $959 average, $39,769,480, five weeks.
Maggie's Plan, Sony Pictures Classics, $623,248, 311 locations, $2,004 average, $1,071,019, four weeks.
Zootopia, Disney, $556,988, 319 locations, $1,746 average, $338,198,507, 15 weeks.
A Aa, BlueSky Cinemas, $345,324, 96 locations, $3,597 average, $2,255,376, two weeks.
Te3n, Reliance Big Entertainment PVT. Ltd., $258,066, 104 locations, $2,481 average, $258,066, one week.
MovieStyle on 06/17/2016