Are you fan of the Fack Ju Gohte franchise? If you are not a German moviegoer, probably not. This weekend, however, the second movie in this comedy series was the big news at the box office, collecting an additional $16 million to a total take of $43,000 after 11 days in release in two territories, Germany and Hungary. Directed by Bora Dagekin, the sophomore high-school romp is quickly following in the steps of the first movie, which ended its run with a $60 million in 2013.
Elsewhere, the international box office followed the North American lead making another sequel, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials its top priority with a $43.3 million take from
66 territories over the weekend, for a cumulative total of $78 million (and it hasn’t reached China yet). The second installment of the dystopian teen adventure placed number 1 in 33 countries, performing especially well in South Korea, with a $7.5 million opening. Tom Cruise’s international star keeps shining, with Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation adding another $21.2 million to its already massive take, for a staggering total of $464.7 million in tickets sold overseas. Sony’s animated feature Pixels rolled out mid-week in China but
could not overtake the current favorite, Universal’s Minions. Pixels disappointed with a
$11.2 million take at the valuable Chinese box office, where it was expected to open strong but instead got a beating from Tom Cruise and a bunch of funny-looking gibberish-talking
little guys. Stateside, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was the big winner with an opening take of $30.3 million, made more impressive considering that this is a slow time of the year. The award/prestige season is just starting to rev up its engines, and first out of the gate (and a tour of high-profile festivals) is Black Mass, a narrative of the crimes and unholy alliances of Boston crime lord James “Whitey” Bulger. The Johnny Depp vehicle took $23.3 million in the U.S., placing second at the domestic box office. Overseas, Mass is being rolled out slowly, eyeing a long run propelled by awards buzz and Johnny Depp’s star power. It took a minimal $675,000 from six territories, but there’s much more to come.
Rounding up the U.S. box office’s top five are M. Night Shyamalan’s back-to-form/low budget horror-comedy The Visit, which took $11.3 million for a cumulative total of $41.4 million; the resilient The Perfect Guy, in fourth place with $9.7 million and an impressive total of $41.4 million; and, in fifth place, the high-profile Everest, another picture with good genes – director Baltasar Kormákur, cast led by Jake Gyllenhaal, a track through the Fall festivals – aiming for a long run into awards season. For now, the man versus mountain adventure drama stayed put with a modest $7.5 million domestic take from 545 venues, plus $28.2 million from 36 overseas territories.
Next week will be a repeat of what we have just seen: a mix of family pictures – Sony’s animated feature Hotel Transylvania 2 and the feel-good, all generations comedy The Intern, helmed by Nancy Meyers, starring Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro; a lowbrow horror movie aimed at teenagers – Eli Roth’s The Green InfernoStonewall.
Lorenzo Soria