Blue Sky's Epic was no dud over the holiday weekend, as expected...
Early on, I had predicted Rio numbers for its entire box office run. It looks like this film will perform just like that colorful comedy did two years ago. Over the weekend, the film took in a solid $33 million. While that isn't terribly great for a big animated release, it's not necessarily bad either. Puss in Boots opened around the same region back in October 2011. Luckily, Fox opted to release this film on Memorial Day weekend, which helped it climb to $42 million. Right now the film is on par with Rio, but it probably won't make as much in the end since big competition is less than a month away...
DreamWorks' The Croods has taken in $563 million to date. It's currently DreamWorks' second highest grossing non-sequel film, behind the original Kung Fu Panda ($631 million) which wasn't a 3D film. I bet 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks (especially!) are happy... A real rebound after Rise of the Guardians, a film that (in my opinion) deserved to be the bigger hit. From the beginning it looked like The Croods would essentially be the DreamWorks equivalent Ice Age franchise, a safe bet that'll explode at the international box office. I'm surprised DreamWorks hasn't already announced a third film, but the sequel is already in the works and a TV show is on its way...
The other animated release that came out this year happened to be a clunker... Escape from Planet Earth did solid business domestically given the lack of family-friendly fare after the relatively unsuccessful re-release of Monsters, Inc. back in December. I didn't expect it to be a hit to begin with, since it looked like strictly kids stuff... But it couldn't double that $40 million budget. For some odd reason, the other films Weinstein planned to release this year have been off the schedule for months: Leo the Lion, The Trick or Treaters and Santapprentice.
Will the animation box office get a real boost in the coming months? Monsters University is undoubtedly going to be big, but how big? I keep thinking $300 million domestically since this is a follow up to a beloved Pixar film that came out nearly 12 years ago. I think that it'll get a Toy Story 3-sized boost since nostalgic teenagers and college students will flock to see this, not to mention it's a college film! But Box Office Mojo and BoxOffice.com's predictions say otherwise... I think it'll clear $300 million. Despicable Me 2 on the other hand might as well, but I really can't see it hitting $300 million... I think it'll come very very close though. But whatever they make, they'll be BIG. Of course it'll be exciting to track both...
Turbo ought to do well enough since it looks like fun, despite being crammed between Despicable Me 2 and The Smurfs 2, which of course will do good business. Planes will cap off the summer with a good-sized gross... $100 million might even be in play for this one.
What are your predictions? Will Epic gross as much as Rio? Or not? What are you predicting for Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 and Turbo? Sound off below!
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