Bryan Singer's critically acclaimed ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ soars at the Memorial Day weekend box office with a global debut of $302 million -- the best of any ‘X-Men’ film.
Bryan Singer's critically acclaimed X-Men: Days of Future Past soared at the Memorial Day weekend box office, nabbing a stellar four-day debut of $111 million from 3,996 theaters. Internationally, the 20th Century Fox tentpole took in $191 million through Monday, putting its global total at $302 million -- the best debut of any X-Men film.
Days of Future Past bested the $203 global opening of X-Men: The Last Stand, although in North America, The Last Stand still sports the top debut of all time for an X-Men title ($122 million).
The movie, which cost $200 million-plus to produce, features actors from the original X-Men trilogy of films and X-Men: First Class, including Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.
Facing fierce competition from Days of Future Past, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.' Godzilla fell steeply in its second weekend. The tentpole, coming in second place, posted a four-day gross of $39.4 million and a three-day gross of $31.1 million, down 67 percent from last weekend. Globally, Godzilla has now taken in $323.4 million, including $156.8 million domestically and $166.6 million internationally. Over the weekend, Godzilla helped Warner Bros. cross the $1 billion mark in foreign box-office revenue for the 14th consecutive year.
Blended, the weekend's other new nationwide offering, reteamed Adam Sandler with Drew Barrymore for the third time after The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates. In third place, the Warner Bros. film grossed $18.2 million from 3,555 locations over the four-day holiday weekend, one of the worst openings for a Sandler film in recent years. Produced for a relatively modest $45 million, the film's poor performance played a major role in box-office revenue being down more than 26 percent from Memorial Day weekend 2013.
Universal's R-rated comedy Neighbors continued to shine, coming in number four in its third weekend with a four-day gross of $17.2 million and a three-day gross of $13.9 million from 3,266 locations. The Seth Rogen and Zac Efron film crossed the $100 million mark over the long holiday weekend, ending Monday with a domestic total of $116.9 million and a global haul of $184.3 million.
Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 rounded out the top five, reporting a three-day gross of $7.8 million and a four-day gross of $10 million from 3,160 theaters for a domestic total of $187.1 million through Monday. Internationally, the sequel took in another $11.2 million for an international total of $489 million and worldwide total of $676.1 million.
Disney's Million Dollar Arm, starring Jon Hamm as a sports agent who travels to India to recruit baseball pitchers, came in sixth place, taking in $8.7 million for its sophomore outing for a domestic total of $22.2 million.
Fox comedy The Other Woman came in seventh, grossing $4.5 million for a domestic total of $78.6 million.
Fox and Blue Sky's Rio 2 made $3.5 million over its seventh weekend at the box office for a new domestic total of $122.3 million and an eighth place finish.
Now in its third weekend, Jon Favreau's Chef came in ninth as it expanded into a total of 498 theaters. The indie food truck comedy grossed $2.3 million for the three-day period and an estimated $2.9 million for the four, putting its domestic total at $4.2 million. Open Road Films is distributing the movie in the U.S.
Rounding out the list at number 10, Sony/TriStar faith-based film Heaven Is for Real made $2.8 million over its sixth weekend at the North American box office, pushing the film’s domestic total to $86.6 million.
Disney’s Frozen held on to first place in Japan for the 11th weekend in a row. The movie now ranks fourth all-time there with $193.7 million. On a worldwide basis, it passed Iron Man 3 to become the top movie from 2013 and the fifth-biggest all-time. To date, the animated sensation has earned $1.22 billion.
Box office numbers were obtained on boxofficemojo.com.
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
