Adam Sandler sci-fi romp Pixels failed to rack up the weekend’s highest score on its debut at the US box office, pulling in a disappointing $24m to open in second place behind Marvel’s Ant-Man.
Analysts suggest the weak return could spell “game over” for the Billy Madison comic as a major Hollywood player after a run of weakly performing films. Pixels, the poorly reviewed story of an alien invasion by beings resembling 1980s video game icons such as Pac Man and Donkey Kong, had been much hyped with studio Sony declaring in March that the debut trailer for the film had smashed 24-hour viewing records. Predictions that the $88m budget movie could be one of the year’s highest grossing now seem spectacularly far fetched and Sandler may be thankful that he recently signed a deal for streaming service Netflix to finance and release his next four films after 2014 rom com Blended, 2012’s That’s My Boy and 2011’s Jack and Jill all struggled at the box office.
Ant-Man instead emerged as the weekend’s big winner after taking another $24.7m for a two-week total of $106m in first place. The superhero tale remains an underperformer in comparison to recent Marvel efforts, but a two-week global take of $226.4m worldwide against a shooting budget of just $130m suggests this will be another financial success for the Disney-owned studio.
Of other new entries this week, the boxing drama Southpaw ($16.5m in fifth) surprisingly beat young adult drama Paper Towns ($12.5m in sixth) despite middling reviews. Antoine Fuqua’s film, featuring Jake Gyllenhaal as a boxing champion who must fight his way back to the top after experiencing tragedy, also stars Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker and Naomie Harris.
Paper Towns is based on the novel by John Green, whose novel The Fault in Our Stars was adapted for one of the biggest sleeper box office hits of 2014, taking more than $300m worldwide. On that basis, the new film, which stars Nat Wolff and Britain’s Cara Delevingne, has so far proved a disappointment despite semi-decent reviews. Wolff plays a high school student roped into a series of revenge prank attacks by popular Margo (Delevingne) against the friends who have betrayed her.
The top five was completed by animated blockbuster sequel Minions in third place, with another $22m in its third week on release for a north American total of $261.5m, and Amy Schumer comedy Trainwreck in fourth, with $17.2m this time around for a two week total of $61.5m.
The Thursday night fatal shooting of two filmgoers at a cinema in Louisiana by a gunman who later turned the weapon on himself does not appear to have damaged Trainwreck, which was screening at the time. But analysts believe numbers for family-oriented films may have dipped somewhat on expectations with parents choosing to keep their children at home.
US box office chart, 24-27 July
1. Ant-Man: $24.7m, 106m
2. Pixels: $24m - NEW
3. Minions: $22m, $261.5m
4. Trainwreck: $17.2m, $61.5m
5. Southpaw: $16.5m - NEW
6. Paper Towns: $12.5m - NEW
7. Inside Out: $7.3m, $320.3m
8. Jurassic World: $6.8m, $623.7m
9. Mr Holmes: $2.8m, $6.4m
10. Terminator Genisys: $2.4m, $85.6m
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