Gru and the minions had a sensational debut over the holiday weekend, while moviegoers seemed disinterested in Johnny Depp as Tonto in The Lone Ranger.
Despicable Me 2 blew past expectations with a $82.5 million weekend debut and $142.1 million over the five-day holiday frame. This is well above my projections of $61.3M and $104.8M, respectively. Clearly audiences were quite ready for the sequel to the 2010 animated hit.
Meanwhile, Disney’s The Lone Ranger is already a box office dud. It debuted to a weak $29.4 million over the weekend with $46.9 million over the five-day, well below my projections of $37.8M and $63.9M, respectively.
The Sandra Bullock/Melissa McCarthy comedy The Heat held up slightly better than expected with $25 million, just above my $23.7M projection. Despicable took a bigger bite out of Monsters University than I expected. The Pixar flick dropped to fourth with $19.6 million, below my $25 million estimate. Rounding out the top five, World War Z earned $18.2 million, above my $15M projection. Outside of the top five, the Kevin Hart stand-up concert film Let Me Explain earned a robust $17.5 million over the five-day holiday frame.
Be sure to check back soon for box office projections for next weekend’s openers, Pacific Rim and Grown Ups 2!
All My Life... I Wanted To Be A Blogster 