San Andreas has no aliens, no monsters and no superheroes. Just Mother Nature in all its fearsome fury, in the form of devastating earthquakes that bring total devastation to Nevada first, then L.A. and San Francisco. And Dwayne Johnson, as a brave helicopter pilot, whose main concern is not to help victims and survivors but his own family. That was enough for an opening of seismic proportions and way above any tracking numbers, with over $53 million just in North America. It’s the largest debut for a disaster movie on record, and now there are projections indicating that $150 million domestic and $500 million global are strong possibilities. Also starring Carla Gugino and Paul Giamatti, San Andreas is a personal triumph for The Rock, who has not seen this kind of success since the days of The Scorpion King, back in 2002. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, San Andreas had its best showing in places where one could have assumed people would not have wanted to see themselves exposed to such dangers. In the movie, Los Angeles and San Francisco suffer catastrophic damage and losses but 19 of the 20 top grossing theaters in the U.S. were in the two California cities.
 
Abroad it was much of the same: the best showing was in earthquake-prone Mexico, with an impressive $10 million debut. But the film did pretty well everywhere else. 60 countries generated $60 million. In 55 of those countries, it was number one. And things were particularly good in the UK ($6.7 million), in Brazil and in France (with over $3 million). The Asian region generated $11 million, with the big guns – China, Japan and Korea – still to come.
 
The other major debut of the week was Aloha, and the disaster here came not with the genre but with the commercial performance. The movie has star power: there is Bradley Cooper as a military contractor; there are also Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams. The director is the well-loved Cameron Crowe. But after Sony’s own ex-head Amy Pascal criticized the picture in her leaked emails of last fall and the critics found it confusing at best, the result was a meager $10 million, the lowest opening up to now for a summer release by a major studio. 64% of the audience was female. Meanwhile it was another good week for Pitch Perfect 2, which earned $14.8 million for a domestic total, so far, of $148 million. It means that it has already surpassed the total take of Les Miserables to become the third biggest musical of all times. Not bad for a film that comes with a production cost of $30 million. And which keeps piling up money overseas, for a worldwide total of close to $230 million.
 
Also Mad Max: Fury Road keeps marching on. Domestically, it added $14 million, which translates into $116 million in 17 days. Outside of the U.S., the return of George Miller to his post-apocalyptic landscapes with Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy as his lead actors was good for an extra $21 million in 70 markets, for an international total of $165 million. Korea was still the bright spot: it was number one for the 3rd week in a row, for a total over there alone of $23 million.
 
Avengers: Age of Ultron, in the meantime, keeps piling up money. It took an extra $11 million domestically; internationally it was good for an extra $18 million. The total number now stands at $1.32 billion, with $225 million out of China alone. Korea, so far, is good for  $82 million, the UK for $71 million; Mexico and Brazil are approaching the $50 million mark. And Japan is still to come, with an opening there planned for July 4. Also Furious 7 is not going away. In its eighth week, it added a cool $1 million domestically, and $1.7 million abroad, for a worldwide total of $1.506 billion.
 
Tomorrowland, the sci-fi fantasy direct by Brad Bird and starring George Clooney, continues its slow descent. In its second weekend in the U.S., it added $13.8 million, for a drop of 59% and a total of $63 million. The foreign revenues now are approximately $70 million. Decent numbers, but the picture reportedly cost close to $200 million to produce. And it cannot count on being rescued by China, where it opened with a disappointing $3 million.
 
As for next week, Entourage will face Insidious Chapter 3. And Spy, the comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law, which has already opened in several countries ahead of its U.S. debut and so far has generated $28 million. Next week will mark also the debut of San Andreas in China, where it hopes to shake up its super hot box office.
Lorenzo Soria