Box Office by the Numbers: ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ Is the Year’s New Biggest Movie

1: Movies people went to see this weekend. (OK — slight exaggeration, but the gulf between Transformers: Age of Extinction and everything else was immense.)
$100 million: American box-office total for director Michael Bay’s fourth installment in his American money-vacuum, the Transformers franchise. To help put this in perspective: $100 million is a lot of money. It’s the most money any movie’s made in a single weekend this year, with Age of Extinction beating April’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier by $5 million. Transformers had the biggest opener since November’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire took home $158 million.
2nd: Age of Extinction’s ranking in Transformers opening-weekend history. (Ditto for Bay’s career rankings.) Revenge of the Fallen opened to $109 million in 2009, while 2007’s Transformers opened to $70.5 million and Dark of the Moon splashed into summer with $97.85 million in 2011. The worldwide gross has risen with each new Transformers movie; the third film was the first one to pass a billi, going all the way to $1.12 billion.
$90 million: Age of Extinction‘s opening haul in China, the nation’s biggest opener ever for a non-Chinese film. (And possibly China’s biggest opening ever.) The fourquel earned an impressive $300 million worldwide, meaning this could be another $1 billion movie.
8th: Transformers: Age of Extinction’s ranking on the all-time foreign opener chart. “That’s more impressive considering it was only playing in 37 markets, and wasn’t in any of the major markets in Europe or Latin America,” Box Office Mojo writes. Age of Extinction is the 27th-best opener in American history, above Iron Man but below Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
$10.7 million: Age of Extinction’s IMAX receipts, ranking no. 2 all time behind 2013’s Man of Steel.
1st: Standing newly enjoyed by 22 Jump Street in the two-film Jump Street saga. The sequel narrowly passed the original’s domestic total this weekend, moving up to $139.8 million.
4th: New ranking for last week’s first place Think Like a Man Too. The movie’s $10.4 million intake marked a 64 percent dip. “Through 10 days, the comedy sequel has earned $48.2 million, and is on track to earn substantially less than its predecessor ($91.5 million),” Box Office Mojo reports. The sequel is only playing in 2,225 theaters, versus 4,233, 3,426, and 3,750 for the three movies above it. Also: It’s not playing abroad.
3/3: Weeks How to Train Your Dragon 2 has been out/sequel’s current ranking in the box office top 10. Dragon 2 took home an extra $13.1 million this time. Worldwide, it’s at $227.9 million, which is far behind the original’s $494.9 million.
$8.2 million: Maleficent’s weekend take, bringing it past $200 million in America. It only took Angelina Jolie five weeks to get there, while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 just passed $200 million after nine weeks. Maleficent should pass $600 million worldwide by next week. It’s still Jolie’s biggest movie ever; nothing’s changed there.
$7.6 million: Second-week American total for Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys. The Broadway adaptation is getting close to earning back its $40 million budget, although overseas grosses are negligible at the moment, amounting to just $3.7 million.
1st: X-Men: Days of Future Past’s international ranking for the year. It moved to $713 million this weekend, pushing it past Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s worldwide totals.
6: Consecutive weekends Jon Favreau’s Chef has found itself in the top 10. This week it’s at no. 10, taking in another $1.65 million, bringing it within spitting distance of $20 million.
2: Indies — Begin Again, from Once’s John Carney, and Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer — that made decent limited-release splashes. The Weinstein Company’s Snowpiercer took in $162,100 across eight locations, while Begin Again, starring Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley, made $148,000 in five locations.
$318.65 million: Worldwide total for Edge of Tomorrow, which started out looking troubled but managed, particularly thanks to international receipts, to save face. Edge proved not to be a career-killer for difficult director Doug Liman, who entered talks last week to helm a remake of the 1981 WWII soccer movie Victory.
TOP 10 [via Box Office Mojo]
1. Transformers: Age of Extinction: $100 million (opening weekend)
2. 22 Jump Street: $15.4 million ($139.8 million U.S. cumulative; week 3; previous ranking: no. 2)
3. How to Train Your Dragon 2: $13.1 million ($121.8 million U.S. cumulative; week 3; previous ranking: no. 3)
4. Think Like a Man Too: $10.4 million ($48.2 million U.S. cumulative; week 2; previous ranking: no. 1)
5. Maleficent: $8.2 million ($201.9 million U.S. cumulative; week 5; previous ranking: no. 5)
6. Jersey Boys: $7.6 million ($27.3 million U.S. cumulative; week 2; previous ranking: no. 4)
7. Edge of Tomorrow: $5.2 million ($84.15 million U.S. cumulative; week 4; previous ranking: no. 6)
8. The Fault in Our Stars: $4.8 million ($109.5 million U.S. cumulative; week 4; previous ranking: no. 7)
9. X-Men: Days of Future Past: $3.3 million ($223.4 million U.S. cumulative; week 6; previous ranking: no. 8)
10. Chef: $1.65 million ($19.4 million U.S. cumulative; week 8; previous ranking: no. 10)
Filed Under: Movies, box office by the numbers, Box office, transformers: age of extinction, Michael Bay, 22 jump street, how to train your dragon 2, think like a man too, maleficent, jersey boys, edge of tomorrow, X-Men: Days of Future Past, chef
More from
-
‘TURN DOWN FOR VOTES,’ Scream Cool Celebrities in Perfect Video
-
John Cusack and Cameron Crowe Are Battling NBC’s ‘Say Anything’ TV Show One Tweet at a Time
-
Jerry Seinfeld Wins Advertising Award, Rips Industry to Shreds
-
The ‘Better Call Saul’ Music Video Is Weird; Does It Say Anything About the Actual Show?
-
Watch Kendrick Lamar Do ‘i’ Live, Give Everyone Their Weekly Pep Talk
More Movies
-
Brand Echh: Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton Can’t Save the Lame ‘Our Brand Is Crisis’
-
Happy ‘Halloween’: The Best Horror-Movie Monsters
-
An Obsessive ‘Ridiculous 6’ Trailer Deconstruction
-
Ash vs. Bruce Campbell: The B Movie Legend Returns to ‘The Evil Dead’
-
Weekend Box Office Winners & Losers: Bill Murray, Vin Diesel, Steve Jobs, and Jem All Go Down in Spectacular Flames
More Hollywood Prospectus
-
Brand Echh: Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton Can’t Save the Lame ‘Our Brand Is Crisis’
-
50 Scenes That Do Not Appear in the Fox ‘X-Files’ Revival
-
In Praise of Beach Slang, 2015’s Best, Most Sincere Rock Band
-
Who Was Missing From Taylor Swift’s Miami Squad?
-
Happy ‘Halloween’: The Best Horror-Movie Monsters