Twentieth Century Fox’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes dominated the domestic box office this weekend, taking in an exceptional $73 million. The thriller sequel, directed by Matt Reeves, scored $18.2 million more than 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and stars Andy Serkis as head ape Caesar, along with a new cast of humans including Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman and Keri Russell.
Both audiences and critics were fond of the film, which was released across 3,967 theaters, with audiences giving an A minus CinemaScore, and critics a 91 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“It’s one of those rare times when critics and audiences agree and the confluence created a perfect storm for a phenomenal opening,” said Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution at 20th Century Fox. “A lot of the movies over the last couple of weeks have been received on the tepid side, shall we say, so the market was ripe for a high quality, visually-stunning film.”
Audience members were diverse and primarily male (58 percent), with 55 percent of moviegoers ranking in over the age of 25.
The franchise that started 46 years ago with Planet of the Apes will soon become a trilogy, as a sequel for Dawn to be directed by Reeves is already in the works.
Following Dawn’s opening weekend revenue, Fox has become the first studio in 2014 to cross the billion-dollar mark in domestic box-office sales with $1.015 billion. Regardless of the sci-fi movie’s successful debut, the North American box office revenue is still doing poorly, and is down nearly 24 percent from the same weekend in 2013.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak, explained, “If every summer movie had this kind of release, that would be amazing. It combines all the elements of what a smart summer film should be.”
Sliding into second place on the charts is Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction with $16.5 million this weekend, and totaling at $209 million domestically. Following is Melissa McCarthy’s Tammy, which took in $12.9 million in its second weekend, earning $57.3 million in total despite the poor reviews.
In fourth and fifth place on the domestic chart is 22 Jump Street with $6.7 million, totaling to $172 million, and How to Train Your Dragon 2 with $5.9 million, overall earning $152 million.
See what films made the top 10 list at the box office this weekend by clicking “Next”!
