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Sunday August 10, 2014
Weekend Box Office: ‘Boyhood’ Pulls in Another $2 Million; Doofuses Waste $65 Million on ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’
In his review of the reboot of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” which opened in 3,845 theaters this weekend, Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir wrote the following:
I had to draw on my own ninja training and reflect intensively on the transitory nature of all phenomena, just to fend off the profound yearning for death.
O’Hehir better get used to dying because we’ll get more of these. Despite a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the fact that the first reboot grossed only $54 million total in 2007, this rebooted “TMNT” led the weekend with a $65 million haul. It’s the 10th-best opening this year, and the 4th-best ever in August. Thanks, doofuses of America.
Other openers were all “meh” with the critics and the box office: “Into the Storm” drew a 21% rating and $18 million in 3,434 theaters; “Step Up: All In” (not to be confused with “Get On Up”) drew a 43% rating and $6.5 million in 2,072 theaters; and “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” continuing the reductive sunset-Brits-and-India theme with Helen Mirren, drew better reviews (64%) but so-so box office ($11 million in 2,023 theaters).
Last weekend’s No. 1, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which has the advantage (one assumes) of a 92% critic rating and a 96% audience rating on RT, fell off only 56% for another $41 million. After 10 days, it’s slightly ahead of where the latest “Transformers” movie was: $175.9 vs. $175.3 million. But it seems unlikely to break the $300 million barrier. Which means we’ll have our first $300 million-less summer since 2001.
Whither “Transformers”? It keeled over with a bang. All the other Ts grossed at least $300 million, unadjusted, and at least $350 million, adjusted, while “Age of Extinction” won’t even reach $250 million. It’s stuck in the low 240s and grossed only $500K this weekend. Good riddance, I say. Or would say if it wasn’t killing overseas, where it’s grossed an additional $789 million for a worldwide total of $1.032 billion. Fourteenth-best all time. Thanks, doofuses of the world.
Among the smaller, indie releases, “A Most Wanted Man” grossed $2.2 million in 808 theaters for 12th place, while “Boyhood” grossed another $2 million in 507 theaters for 13th place. Haven’t seen the former yet but you should go see the latter. Because it’s the best movie of the year. And because somebody has to combat the doofuses.
Something to fight the doofuses with.