'Inside Out' Taking It To 'Jurassic World' After Friday Showings; 'Ted 2' Struggling
Universal's smash-hit Jurassic World and Disney-Pixar's Inside Out are neck and neck at the top of the weekend box office with respective estimates of $48.8M and $48.7M as of Friday night.
Many believe after the weekend is over, Inside Out may well come out in the lead, and steal the number one spot away from from the record breaking dino blockbuster. In one day, the animated flick racked in a total of $14.8M versus $14.4M of Jurassic World, making it the second day in a row Inside Out nipped ahead after taking $9.5M on Thursday.
It isn't surprising that Jurassoc World is beginning to drift off in its third week of release. However, when a movie becomes such a triumphant hit "it becomes an animal all its own,” industry experts have said. Remember American Sniper last year? A similar trend happened with that film — popularity drives those curious/unsure moviegoers to at least check it out.
Having said that, it wasn't all bad news for Jurassic World. With Friday's numbers, it has beaten Avengers: Age Of Ultron as the highest-grossing film of 2015 to date with $460M, and is set to become the fastest grossing film to reach $500M, making it in 18-19 days, beating The Avengers’ 23 days.
As a result of Jurassic World's slight decline in revenue, Inside Out has gained the audience that Jurassic World has lost. It also helps that the animated flicks social media buzz has increased its engagement, with its Twitter universe increasing from 9.8M for a total of 101M.
Opening this weekend is Ted 2, which was forecasted an estimated opening in the region of $31M for the R-rated comedy sequel. However, audiences have seemingly not taken to the release with it doing the complete opposite to what the original managed — its grossing backwards. Critics were harsh on the foul mouthed teddy, but that was to be expected. Having said that, audiences seem to have the same opinion. According to experts, Ted 2 has maintained its demographic of 56% male, and 52% under the age of 30. However, current numbers for Ted 2 are worryingly low. After Thursday's previews, the sequel managed to bring in $2.6M and by the end of Friday it had took a disappointing $12.5M. It has to be said that Ted 2 doesn't roll-out internationally for another two weeks, and is predicted to fare better overseas.
The reason behind this poor start may simply lay at the feet of moviegoers not taking to the concept of Ted attempting to prove he's a living human. According to tracking, the marketing behind the movie seemed to be working well with many of its trailers performing strongly, accumulating 22M views on YouTube. Along with promotional materials clicking, its social media buzz seemed to be healthy, too. It's Facebook page has 22M likes and Mark Wahlberg's social power of 19.3M followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram seemed to be helping the movies cause. Nonetheless, it has seemingly lost momentum in the closing stages before release. It didn't help that Jurassic World became the most talked about movie on social media which could've led to interest in Ted 2 declining — simply because everyone were talking about those dinosaurs. It's going to be a long weekend for Seth MacFarlene and co. if Ted 2 is to come anywhere near its estimated $31M opening weekend. This is an important movie for MacFarlene who had a pretty rough time with critics and the box office after the hugely disappointing A Million Ways to Die in the West last year.
