• Box Office

World Box Office, May 30- June 5 2016

Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out of the Shadows skated into US screens this week with a modest $32 million domestic debut. The film stars Megan Fox who returns as April O’Neill, a news reporter and the Turtles’ confidant, along with Will Arnett as her editor Vern Fenwick. Arrow’s Stephen Arnell debuts as supporting hero Casey Jones, Brian Tee signs on as Shredder, the comic series’ main antagonist. It landed 53% below 2014’s TMNT, lending credence to the growing trend of “sequilitis” plaguing Hollywood.

Two weeks ago Disney’s Alice Though the Looking Glass bombed on its opening weekend with just $25 million and sits at $175 million worldwide, compared to the original’s $116 million launch and eventual $1.025 billion global earnings. At the end of April we saw The Huntsman: Winter’s War limp to a $19 million opening, well away from the original’s $59 million launch, while Universal’s Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising opened 56% below the first film. Some triple A franchise sequels like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War zoomed past their previous installments, but the greater trend is showing that audiences are growing tired of second and third installments to some of the biggest hits of the past few years. Lionsgate’s The Divergent Series: Allegiant made just $179 million worldwide, down 40% from the previous entry, and even X-Men Apocalypse, which should have been one of Fox’s tentpoles for the year, fell to no. 2 in its econd weekend and is 66% off 2014’s Days of Future Past with just $116 million domestic after two frames.

Warner Bros.’ Me Before You, an original property that caters heavily to women, opened in the US with $18.3 million, well ahead of its project $13-15 million release. The film stars Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke as a woman from the country who takes a job as assistant to a depressed wheelchair-bound young banker and shows him how to enjoy life again. It made $7.3 million overseas as well.

Andy Samberg comedy Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping is tracking close to its expected range after a $4.6 million domestic launch. The $20 million comedy hopes to target a niche market and seems to be doing just that.

Holdover Warcraft performed better than expected with a $29.9 million dollar frame in its second week of overseas play. New openings in Brazil were worth $2.8 million and $2.5 million respectively, while the film’s Italian debut netted $2 million. Universal scored a record debut  in Turkey with $1.1 million, and held the number one spot in Germany for the second time in a row with $3.1 million. Russia, the film’s biggest market, reached $17.3 million. It opens next weekend in the US as well as China, where the videogame’s massive popularity and an opening weekend coinciding with the end of high school exams and the beginning of the dragon boat festival should propel it to a tremendous Middle Kingdom launch.

Disney’s Zootopia crossed the billion-dollar mark this weekend, and The Jungle Book edged past $900 million.

Next weekend we’ll follow Warcraft’s expansions and see the release of Now you see me 2 and The Conjuring 2.

See the latest world box office estimates: worldwide_weekend_estimates_june_5_2016.pdf