White House Down and The Heat continue the onslaught of major releases this summer, but the two films aren’t expected to be able to stop Disney and Pixar’s Monsters University in its second weekend.
Last weekend was surprisingly strong for Hollywood, as Monsters U and World War Z combined forces to drown out Man of Steel in the Superman movie’s second weekend. Monsters U, the prequel to Monsters Inc, opened to $82 million, the second-biggest opening in Pixar history. It’s expected to hold on to more than half of that in week 2. Entertainment Weekly is predicting a $47 million total for its second weekend.
Of the two new films, The Heat, which pairs Sandra Bullock with Melissa McCarthy in a buddy cop comedy, is expected to do better. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film only cost Fox $43 million to make and was directed by Bridesmaids’ Paul Feig. It should easily make north of $40 million, since McCarthy has turned into a huge box office star after the success of Identity Thief earlier this year.
White House Down has one big thing against it - it comes just three months after another “Die Hard in the White House” movie, Olympus Has Fallen. That film made $98.6 million since March. However, White House Down’s main stars - Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx - could draw audiences. Tatum was in three $100 million movies last year and Foxx was last seen in Django Unchained. Box Office Mojo is predicting a $38 million opening.
World War Z could add north of $30 million, while Man of Steel might be lucky to hit $20 million in its third weekend.
Clearly, the deluge of new films from Hollywood have ensured that no single movie has been able to dominate the season for more than a week.
image: Sony