Holdovers rule the weekend

Guardians of the Galaxy reclaimed its No. 1 standing at the box office this weekend, out-performing newcomers If I Stay and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also out-earned the weekend’s new releases, landing at No. 2 behind Galaxy, or the newly minted highest-grossing film of the summer.

Galaxy added $17.6 million to a total gross that now stands at $251 million. The film’s current cume is more than that which blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction, which had previously been the summer’s top earner, has managed to rake in. By week’s end, the Marvel tentpole should also surpass Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s $259.8 million to claim the distinction of 2014’s most successful film.  

It’s unlikely Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will reach the fiscal heights Galaxy has been scaling with ease, but the actioner is nonetheless another seasonal success story. This weekend, the film grossed an additional $16.8 million, a downturn of only 41 percent. Turtles has so far earned $145.6 million in all.

In third place, If I Stay earned a little less than expected. The YA novel adaptation grossed $16 million from 2,907 locations. Although the film didn’t manage to do the expected $20 million worth of business, its opening was yet markedly stronger than last weekend’s YA entrant, The Giver, which underwhelmed with a $12 million debut. Audiences were, of course, majority female (77 percent) and young (61 percent under the age of 25). They awarded the film a healthy CinemaScore grade of an “A-,“ although movies of its ilk (marketed at teens) tend to be front-loaded. Its hold should prove less than tenacious, and after a few more weeks, a total of around $40 million seems likely.

Let’s Be Cops clocked in at No. 4 with $11 million, bumping its total to a solid $45.2 million. When the Game Stands Tall came in just behind Cops with a fifth-place gross of $9 million, roughly as expected.

While pundits weren’t predicting a boffo opening for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, it seems few were expecting the kind of poor turnout the film suffered. City didn’t manage to crack the Top 5, but rather landed at No. 8 (behind The Giver and The Expendables 3) with a dismal $6.48 million. That’s a 78 percent drop from the first Sin City’s debut haul in 2005. The film should fade quickly, and may struggle to top out at $15 million.