‘Guardians’ heads slow holiday weekend

Yet again, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy earned the No. 1 spot at the box office with ease.  The film, which just wrapped its second month in theatres, dropped a mere 5 percent from last weekend to gross $16.5 million. Galaxy has earned over $274 million so far and should eventually tally out to over $300 million.

In second place (yes, once again), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles earned $11.8 million. That’s a respectable drop of only 30 percent; to date, the nostalgia-fueled flick has raked in $162.4 million.

If I Stay also dipped less than expected, only 41 percent from its debut weekend. To compare, although The Fault in Our Stars opened much stronger, it dropped 69 percent its second weekend in theatres. Stay earned $9.3 million over the holiday weekend and has so far grossed $29.8 million.

As Above, So Below was the weekend’s only new major release to crack the Top 5. Coming in at No. 4, the horror movie earned $8.3 million. Audiences were displeased with this latest found-footage gambit, and awarded the film a terrible C- CinemaScore grade. Awful word-of-mouth and poor reviews should work in tandem to significantly shorten the film’s theatrical run. A total gross in the low $20 millions is likely.

The weekend’s No. 5 position was claimed by another successful holdover, Let’s Be Cops. The comedy continues to defy the judgment of critics and added an additional $8.2 million to a total that now stands at $57.3 million.

The weekend’s second new major release, The November Man, raked in a rather weak $7.7 million. Because it opened on Wednesday, however, the film’s total to date is $9.4 million.

That’s only a little bit less than what Sin City: A Dame to Kill For has managed to rake in over the past 10 days: $10.8 million. Sadly, this is itself less than what the original Sin City earned over its opening night.