‘Magic Mike,’ ‘Terminator’ come up short over holiday

Warner Bros. a unit of Time-Warner (NYSE:TWX)’ Magic Mike XXL hoped to clear $50-M for the 5 day holiday open. The movie, which provides the pipsqueak henchmen of the “Despicable Me” films the highlight, has already grossed $ 124.2 million overseas, together with $ fifty four.

The movie beat the fourth film in the popular “Jurassic Park” series, which earned $29.2 million on its fourth week in theaters, according to box officer tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Magic Mike XXL, the follow-up to Steven Soderbergh’s sleeper hit, fared well with critics and even better with moviegoers, who gave it an A- CinemaScore. In 2011, when the Fourth fell on a Monday, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” set records with a $97.8 million weekend. Thanks to a Wednesday start, it sits with a five-day total of $44.1 million.

The disappointing performance of the two new movies somewhat echoes last year’s box office, in which the new movies, the Melissa McCarthy comedy “Tammy” and the animated film “Earth to Echo“, did okay but not great. Colin Treverrow’s dino sequel brought in $30.9 million for the three-day weekend, holding onto the #1 spot. That component provided an upside for Paramount, which saw US$74 million from worldwide markets for the weekend – led by Russian Federation at US$12.5 million, South Korea at US$11.1 million and Mexico at US$6.6 million. Of the five “Terminator” films, “Genisys” had the next-to-worst opening, only trailing the original film, which debuted with $4 million in 1984. The dramedy has now grossed $14.1 million and should finish with around $18 million. As its global roll-out continues, the Pixar picture now sits with a worldwide total of $363.4 million. It brought in $222,000 from six screens ahead of next weekend’s wide release.

Ted 2 finished in the fifth place spot, plunging 67-percent from last week to $11 million, while ex- box office champs San Andreas and Spy are still holding steady in the top 10.

All of this adds up to a usual-usual box office year – hits, misses, disappointments…

Usually, Independence Day is a good weekend to open a movie; just ask Will Smith.

While Magic Mike XXL confuses American audiences with its gratuitous nudity, it makes up for storytelling. However, as Senior media analyst for Rentrak, Paul Dergarabedian, told Variety, with Inside Out and Jurassic World continuing to perform well across all demographics, “Those two holdover films are tough to open against”.