‘Fantastic Four’ Fails to Topple Cruise at Weekend Box Office

That wasn’t enough to top “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation”, which was number one at the box office for a second week in a row with an estimated $US29.4 million, according to Exhibitor Relations. Though reviews were good, the film, based on the animated British TV series, earned only $4 million over the weekend and $5.6 million since opening Wednesday.

As late as Tuesday, Fox had tracking data that suggested the opening the industry was widely expecting: about $40 million to $50 million. The Wrap noted that the audience for “Fantastic Four” was mostly male to the tune of 60 percent, as expected, but it was just not that many of them. And that at least had the advantage of a relatively low budget.

Honestly, all eyes were on Fantastic Four this weekend, so the rest of the top five hardly seems to matter.

Check back each week for box-office previews and results and the latest movie reviews from 22News. Back to the drawing board? If there was a surprise this weekend, it may have been “The Gift“, a thriller that grabbed $12 million and finished third. Vacation could come in fourth at $8.7 million. Those movies managed $56 million and $58 million. “Ant-Man” – $7.8 million Overseas, it was also “Mission” winning again. It’s an interesting comparison to make that Marvel can succeed with a seemingly obscure, tough-to-translate property while others can’t make one of the comic book company’s most famous super teams fly. With $912.5 million worldwide so far, the film has overtaken the original Despicable Me in terms of grosses and is snapping at the heels of Despicable Me 2, while also providing yet another big film for Universal, which is having its best year ever. “Rogue Nation“, in its second week at No.1, earned $29.4 million to pass the $100 million mark.

EW says 20th Century Fox “delayed casting and script approvals, slashed the budget by tens of millions from what was originally promised, and tried to force last-minute changes to the film just as principal photography was beginning”.

Worse off was Aardman Entertainment’s “Shaun the Sheep Movie” from Lionsgate. It cost $18 million to produce and is the first release from the rebooted Tri-Star, the label Tom Rothman was overseeing before he took the reins as head of Sony Pictures.