Sci-fi blockbuster Jurassic World continued to reign at the US box office over the key Fourth of July weekend, scoring $30.9m to hold off challenges from Pixar’s Inside Out and newcomers Terminator: Genisys and Magic Mike XXL.
Colin Trevorrow’s film also overtook Avengers: Age of Ultron to hit the top five highest-grossing films of all time, with $1.385bn (£890m). In its fourth week of release, it boasts $558.1m in North America alone, the fourth best figure ever.
Inside Out also held up extremely well in its third week on release, taking $30.1m to come in a close second. The tale of competing emotions inside the mind of a troubled 11-year-old girl has now pulled in $246m.
Terminator Genisys, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to play the cyborg T-800 for a fourth time on the big screen, could only manage third place, with $28.7m for the weekend. The time travel-themed action reboot, which also stars Game of Thrones’s Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor and Jason Clarke as her son, John, struggled to overcome derisive reviews.
Alan Taylor’s film needed to come out of the blocks much faster to have a chance of recouping its $150m production budget. However, a long-term plan for two additional sequels may yet be saved by the film’s strong performance outside the US, where it took an impressive $85m. Taken together with the movie’s $44.1m north American total since opening last Wednesday, a $129.6m global first-week haul suggests the series might just survive its own day of reckoning.
Also disappointing in north America, but with a far lower $14.8m budget to recoup, was Channing Tatum male stripper sequel Magic Mike XXL. With Matthew McConaughey opting not to return for part two, and Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh dropping to a cinematography role, the followup failed to cross over beyond its core audience. Ninety six per cent of attendees were female, compared with 73% for the original film. In XXL, which also opened on Wednesday and has $27m so far, Tatum’s title character takes his musclebound colleagues on a road trip to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina for one last show.
Rounding out the top five was Seth MacFarlane’s Ted 2, with just $11m in its second week for a total of $58.3m.
There were no further new releases in this week’s top 10. However, the buzzy Amy Winehouse documentary Amy scored a highly impressive $222,015 from six cinemas in New York and Los Angeles on limited release.
US box office chart, 3-5 July
1. Jurassic World: $30.9m, $558.1m
2. Inside Out: $30.1m, $246.1m
3. Terminator Genisys: $28.7m ($44.1m since Wednesday) - NEW
4. Magic Mike XXL: $12m ($27m since Wednesday) - NEW
5. Ted 2: $11m, $58.3m
6. Max: $7m, $25.7m
7. Spy: $5.5m, $97.8m
8. San Andreas: $3m, $147.3m
9. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: $1.3m, $4m
10. Dope: $1m, $14.1m
