Box office report: Ant-Man slips past Pixels to win the weekend
Adam Sandler’s Pixels may have beat the weekend’s other new releases, but its $24 million debut failed to best the small-but-mighty Ant-Man. Instead, Marvel’s smallest hero claimed the box office crown again in its second weekend with an estimated $24.8 million.
That margin is narrow enough that things could change when final box office numbers come in tomorrow, but regardless, it’s a lackluster debut for Pixels and Sandler. Pixels only earned a B CinemaScore, and its $24 million debut puts it closer to Sandler duds like Jack and Jill (which opened to $25 million) than recent hits like Grown Ups 2 ($41.5 million).
But the biggest box office surprise was actually Southpaw, which wasn’t even expected to make the top five. Instead, Jake Gyllenhaal’s boxing movie came in with an estimated $16.5 million, well above early estimates in the low teens. The adult-skewing drama was expected to fall to Paper Towns, but the adaptation of John Green’s young adult novel fell short and only opened to $12.5 million. While Paper Towns was never expected to be as much of a hit as last summer’s other Green adaptation, The Fault In Our Stars (which opened to $48 million), it was still eyeing a debut closer to $20 million.
Meanwhile, Minions fell 55 percent to an estimated $22.1 million, earning third place in its third weekend. Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck, on the other hand, saw a miniscule drop of 43 percent in its sophomore outing, ending the weekend with an estimated $17.3 million.
Outside of the top five, Jurassic World (of course) reached a domestic total of $623.8 million, officially making it the third biggest domestic film of all time. (Just this week, it claimed third place at the worldwide box office, too.)
1. Ant-Man — $24.8 million
2. Pixels — $24 million
3. Minions — $22.1 million
4. Trainwreck — $17.3 million
5. Southpaw — $16.5 million