Box Office: 'X-men: Days of Future Past' Opens to $261 Worldwide; 'Blended' Flops Hard

1. X-men: Days of Future Past- $90.7M
Seven movies in and 20th Century Fox's all-star jam, X-men: Days of Future Past, got off to a $90.7M domestic start, making it the fourth largest debut of the year. Tossing in the Memorial Day holiday and it's estimated to finish up with $107M.  But just looking from Friday thru Sunday, that's less than the critically-reviled X-men: The Last Stand back in 2006, so clearly throwing more big names into the mix wasn't the total answer. The big bucks are going to come internationally where it has already gathered $171M for a total of $261M, and with a cost of $200M Fox is going to be counting on the global numbers to carry the day.
2. Godzilla- $31.4M/$148.7M
Last week's number one film, Godzilla, crashed 66% from last week probably due to a large chunk of its audience going back in time with Marvel's merry band of mutants. Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have already taken steps for a sequel and third film, both directed by Gareth Edwards (also involved with Star Wars now), based on the $252M it has earned worldwide in only two weeks. 
3. Blended- $14.2M
Adam Sandler's clout as an A-lister took another shot to the groin as Blended opened to a dismal $14.2M, one of the worst of opening weekends of his career for a major studio release.  This ranks down there with That's My Boy ($13M), a barely-promoted film that opened in 500 fewer theaters. The bigger difference is that Blended reunites him with Drew Barrymore for what is meant to be a family comedy, but apparently families found something better to do.
4. Neighbors- $13.9M/$113.6M
5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2- $7.8M/$184.9M
6. Million Dollar Arm- $7M/$20.6M
7. The Other Woman- $3.6M/$77.7M
8. Rio 2- $2.5M/$121.5M
9. Chef- $2.2M/$3.5M
Jon Favreau's Chef added another 420 theaters into the mix, and the results were a a solid $2.2M with a $4500 per site average. I'd like to see the numbers on dinner reservations in restaurants near where the film is being shown. I bet they've spiked something fierce. 
10. Heaven is for Real- $1.9M/$85.7M

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Box Office: 'Godzilla' Roars to Monster $93M Debut

1. Godzilla- $93.2M
Any concern that Gareth Edwards Godzilla relaunch would go the way of 1998's just got stomped into oblivion. The film opened to a huge $93M, just under Captain America: The Winter Soldier's $95M and better than The Amazing Spider-Man 2's $91M. Not bad, especially when the $103M overseas gross is factored in, and the fact that the film only cost $160M which is small by tentpole standards nowadays. The future looks bright even with the threat of X-men: Days of Future Past looming on the horizon. So is it time to talk sequel yet?
2. Neighbors- $25.9M/$91.5M
Slipping 47% from last week but creeping up on $100M domestic is Neighbors, the Seth Rogen/Zac Efron attracting $146M worth of stoners worldwide.
3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2- $16.8M/$172.1M
Audiences over here still don't care that much about Spidey, but overseas they are quite wrapped up in the wallcrawler's adventures. Globally the film has made a total of $633M which is all the reason in the world for us to get more sequels and spinoffs.
4.  Million Dollar Arm- $10.5M
Nice try, Disney, attempting to sneak in a family film like Million Dollar Arm to appease those who may not be into Godzilla. Well, maybe they were too clever by half because nobody came to see it despite the presence of Jon Hamm, who continues to be a shaky big screen lead.  Inspirational sports movies are usually money in the bank for Disney but with bad reviews and poor marketing this one was a strike out.
5. The Other Woman- $6.3M/$71.6M
6. Heaven is for Real- $4.4M/$82.2M

7. Rio 2- $3.8M/$118M
8. Captain America: The Winter Soldier- $3.7M/$250.6M
9. Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return- $1.95M/$6.5M
10. Moms' Night Out- $1.9M/$7.3M

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Box Office: 'Neighbors' Helps Itself to #1; 'Spider-Man' Falls to 2nd

1. Neighbors- $51MM
The powerhouse duo of Seth Rogen and Zac Efron proved to be more formidable than Spider-Man or his legion of villains as Neighbors debuted to a huge $51M. So, to put that into some perspective; it's the fourth best opening weekend for an R-rated comedy ever, and in only one week it has nearly half of the entire domestic haul of last summer's This Is the End. Not too shabby. Take out comedy sequels and the results are even better, landing in 2nd place all-time behind Seth MacFarlane's Ted, which is pretty good company to be in. This one looked like a winner all around with Rogen attracting the slacker/stoner crowd and Efron luring in the ladies. And to add to that point, the audience who turned out was 53% female. Maybe a few of those were Rose Byrne fans who remember her from Bridesmaids, but more than likely it was seeing Efron act against type that brought them in. Perhaps most surprising is the $33M it earned overseas, making Neighbors a hit no matter how you slice it. So what's next? Neighbors 2: The Revenge?
2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2- $37.2M/$147.9M
After one week at the top Spidey ran out of web fluid and tumbled down to second place, losing a steep 59% of the audience who probably went to go watch Seth Rogen sit on a whoopie cushion. These numbers certainly aren't terrible, especially when the $403M it earned internationally are factored in, but Sony has to be a little disappointed. This isn't what they were hoping for when they relaunched the franchise after Sam Raimi's third film. With the budgets on these only getting higher they are basically right back where they started.
3. The Other Woman- $9.25M/$61.7M
4. Heaven is for Real- $7M/$75.2M
5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier- $5.6M/$244.9M
6. Rio 2- $5.1M/$113.1M
7. Moms' Night Out- $4.2M
The latest faith-based film hoping to be a destination for church group field trips is Moms' Night Out, which debuted decently to $4M at just over 1000 screens. That's still far from the obviously religious films like Heaven is for Real and God's Not Dead, and part of that may be that the ads looked like generic comedy fluff with Patricia Heaton and Samwise Gamgee. A heavier focus on the religious aspects may have done this film well.
8. Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return- $3.7M
At a time when animated family movies are basically non-existent, the newbie studio behind Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return managed one of the worst wide-release openings ever. Reviews were awful and there was simply no buzz for this film, which looked like it should have been a straight-to-DVD release utilizing some of the familiar characters of L. Frank Baum's famous world.
9. Divergent- $1.7M/$145M
10. Brick Mansions- $1.4M/$18.3M

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Box Office: Captain America Gets Taken Down by 'The Other Woman

1. The Other Woman- $24.7M
The summer movie season  kicks off in earnest next week, and the last non-blockbuster film to take the top spot for awhile is The Other Woman. The terribly-reviewed, really rather awful comedy was powered by Cameron Diaz, who has a pretty healthy box office record with these types of movies. The marketing boasted it was the funniest movie since Bridesmaids, and probably that helped lure in the target female audience they were looking for. Surely they didn't turn up to watch Kate Upton's boobs bouncing around in slo-mo. That's what the handful of guys in the audience paid for.
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier- $16M/$224.8M
3. Heaven is for Real- $13.8M/$51.9M
4. Rio 2- $13.6M/$96.1M
5. Brick Mansions- $9.6M
Sadly, the final completed work by the late Paul Walker was box office and critical dud, Brick Mansions. A remake of Luc Besson's smash 2004 parkour film, District B13, this version brings back Besson and star David Belle, throws RZA into the mix, but was really banking on Walker's name to carry it through. And unfortunately, outside of the Fast & Furious movies Walker has never been much of a draw.
6. Transcendence- $4.1M/$18.4M
The continued decline of Johnny Depp continues as Transcendence, which opened hella soft last week, dipped 62%. That $18M after two weeks is a mere drop in the bucket of the $100M+ budget, but the additional $17M earned overseas should help ease studio pain just a little. Still, this one's a disaster for all involved and the year's first huge flop.
7. The Quiet Ones- $4M
The producers of The Quite Ones scored a huge hit a couple of years ago with The Woman in Black, mostly thanks to the post-Harry Potter turn by Daniel Radcliffe, but they are not finding that same level of success this time. The horror creeps in with little fanfare, a severe lack of star power (Jared Harris and Sam Claflin star),  and unfortunate timing as it comes on the heels of the buzzworthy Oculus.
8. Bears- $3.606M/$11.1M
9. Divergent- $3.6M/$139.4M
10. A Haunted House 2- $3.2M/$14.2M

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Box Office: 'Transcendence' Fails to Boot Up as Faith-Based Films Surge

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier- $26.6M/$201.5M
Marvel continues to show dominance as Captain America: The Winter Soldier held on to the top spot in its third week, trumping a new film by Johnny Depp and the powerful faith-based genre. At this point the film has cleared the $200M domestic hurdle and has hit $586M worldwide, far better than the original in both respects.
2. Rio 2- $22.5M/$75.3M
The animated sequel is lagging behind the original slightly on the domestic front, but it continues to do big business internationally where it sits at $199M.
3. Heaven is for Real- $21.5M/$28.5M
Riding the popular wave of Christian-themed films is Heaven is for Real, a Greg Kinnear-led weeper that should have the actor forgetting how badly his Rake series tanked. Of course, it doesn't hurt to open on Good Friday (when many businesses and schools were closed) and Easter weekend. It's probably worth nothing there are three Bible-based movies in the top 10 this week, meaning we're likely to see a lot more of them, because obviously there's a pretty big audience....for now.
4. Transcendence- $11.1M
And the big loser of the week is....generally anything where Johnny Depp isn't Jack Sparrow. Seriously, Depp can't buy a win unless he's dressed as a pirate, and that trend continues with Transcendence, which opened disastrously at $11.5M. Yes, Depp was beaten out by Greg Kinnear this week. Mull over that one. The film boasts some pretty big names on the cast (Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall) but the marketing has been awful, failing to pinpoint what it's actually about. Why is Depp all digital and bored looking on those posters? And certainly there's no name value in pumping the name of Wally Pfister, Christopher Nolan's long-time DP making his directorial debut. Basically, this is a sore mark for everybody involved.
5. A Haunted House 2- $9.1M
There was some good-natured rivalry between Marlon Wayans' A Haunted House and the latest Scary Movie film, and that maybe helped bolster the comedy's $18M opening weekend. But there wasn't much of a desire for a sequel, and we see that half of the audiences didn't bother to turn out for A Haunted House 2. Still, at a cost of only $4M, Wayans could probably care less.
6. Draft Day- $5.9M/$19.5M
7. Divergent- $5.75M/$133.9M
8. Oculus- $5.2M/$21.1M
9. Noah- $5M/$93.2M
10. God's Not Dead- $4.8M/$48.3M

In other news, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opened big overseas with $47M, setting the stage for its domestic debut on May 2nd. And Disney dropped another of their nature docs with Bears, earning $5M in the process.

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