Dumb and Dumber To beat Big Hero 6 to the punch and finished light-years ahead of Interstellar on the domestic market to come in first place with $38.1 million in its opening weekend. And stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels proved that their uniquely lowbrow brand of slapstick comedy is just as capable of bringing in audiences today is it was twenty years ago.
This debut is especially important for Carrey, who hasn’t had a veritable live-action hit since 2003’s Bruce Almighty. Jeff Daniels meanwhile has enjoyed hearty praise for his work in HBO’s Newsroom, including a 2012 Golden Globe Nomination, but will nonetheless certainly enjoy this return to a starring feature film role.
Audiences skewed quite young for the reboot of an early 1990s hit. 47% of viewers were under the age of 25, meaning the oldest segment of this demographic was just 5 years old when the original was released. Older brothers’ and sisters’ VHS collections must have played a significant part in building a fan base for this title. The film had a limited release abroad, picking a combined $3.2 from engagements in Spain, Austria, Germany and German-speaking Switzerland. Meantime Interstellar had another huge weekend overseas. Christopher Nolan’s epic science-heavy odyssey made $106 million from 63 foreign territories. Its international cumulative is now $224.1 million. In China the film brought Nolan into uncharted territory. Its $42 million weekend opening is the director’s biggest ever in the PRC, where it was shown on a staggering 7,607 screens, and the second biggest for distributor Warner Bros. International. The film also had another superlative weekend in Korea, rising 11% from last frame to finish with $15.8 million in its second week in peninsula’s more Hollywood-friendly southern half.
Interstellar grossed $6 million in the UK, $5.3 million in Russia, where it now has a
$16.8 million cumulative. In France it earned $4.1 million to reach a local cume of $12.8 million, while in Germany it made $3.6 million for a national total of $7.7 million despite competition from Die Mannschaft, a documentary about the current World Cup champions’ road to victory this past summer. In Mexico the picture made $1.7 million, while in Brazil in picked up $1.5 million. It now has total earnings of $5.7 million and $3.9 million in the two nations, respectively
Domestic numbers are certainly not bad, but Interstellar hasn’t received the same level of outstanding results in its home market. Its second North American weekend was good for $29.12 million, taking it to a U.S. cumulative of $97.8 million. While this figure only brought a third place finish, it was good enough to propel the picture past the $300 million mark, with a combined domestic and international cumulative of $321.9 million.
Second place in North America went to last weekend’s number one hit Big Hero 6. The Disney animated feature made $36 million in its second weekend, and now has a domestic cumulative of $111.653 million. Overseas, it made $11.9 million in 23 markets, including Mexico where it finished first with $4.8 million, and Malaysia where it was also number one with $1.2 million. Its combined total $148.1 million was enough to push Disney past the $4 billion mark for global sales. This is only the second time in history that the studio has reached this number.
Beyond the Lights was the only other major new offering in the North American market, finishing fourth with $6.5 million. The film follows the career of a talented pop singer, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and also features Minnie Driver and Danny Glover.
At the specialty box office Foxcather had a fantastic platform opening in New York and Los Angeles, making $288,000 from six theatres for a $48,000 per-screen average. Wider release is a near certainty.
Next weekend we’ll see just how massive the turnout for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part I will be.
Lorenzo Soria