No new animated films opened last weekend, but there was plenty of animation in the theaters. Here are the estimated earnings of animated films in US theaters:
5th: Planes / $13.1 mil WEEKEND / $45.1 mil TOTAL
9th: Smurfs 2 / $4.6 mil WEEKEND / $57 mil TOTAL
12th: Despicable Me 2 / $3.8 mil WEEKEND / $346 mil TOTAL
16th: Turbo / $1 mil WEEKEND / $77.6 mil TOTAL
Internationally, the box office played out like this:
Smurfs 2 / $20 mil WEEKEND
Despicable Me 2 / $19.5 mil WEEKEND
Planes / $7.3 mil WEEKEND
Monsters University / $6 mil WEEKEND
Turbo / $2.9 mil WEEKEND
And the overall box office totals to date (US plus international):
Despicable Me 2: $781.2 mil
Monsters University: $658.6 mil
Smurfs 2: $207 mil
Turbo: $142 mil
Planes: $52.4 mil
Disney’s Planes opened in the United States in third place with an estimated $22.5 million this weekend. The debut of the DisneyToon Studios film topped the opening weekends of DreamWorks’ Turbo ($21.3 mil) and Sony’s Smurfs 2 ($17.5 mil). Planes cost $50 mil to produce, which is modest compared to the recent DreamWorks and Sony pics which cost $135-145 mil to produce. The film is a sad reminder to other studios: Disney can skimp on production quality and still do better than its competitors because of the strength of its all important Disney brand.
Smurfs 2 dropped 46% in its second outing with an estimated $9.5 mil. The film has grossed a paltry $46.6 mil in America. Despicable Me 2 held steady in its sixth weekend, with a ninth place finish of $5.7 mil and a massive total of $338.3 mil, which makes it the fifth highest-grossing American animated feature of all-time. Turbo crashed out of the top ten, landing in 12th place with $2.3 mil in its fourth weekend. The film suffered a huge 64% week-to-week drop and has made $75 mil to date.
International numbers coming soon…
Had enough of those new-fangled, three dimensional, CGI Smurfs? Well, Sony Pictures Animation probably had you in mind when they made a new Smurf “mini-movie” that mixes a few minutes of CG with a whole bunch of hand-drawn animation.
The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow is a Halloween tale directed by Stephan Franck (Iron Giant, Despicable Me) and produced by Mary Ellen Bauder (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania).
Selected into official competition this year at the Annecy Film Festival, the story centers around Gutsy and Brainy Smurf:
When Brainy Smurf is favored to win the annual Smurfberry Hunt for the ninth year in a row, Gutsy Smurf sets out to discover how Brainy wins every year. Gutsy’s investigation takes him into spooky Smurfy Hollow-and right into Gargamel’s trap! Can Brainy and Gutsy, with the help of Smurfette, put aside their rivalry before Gargamel captures them-or worse, they come face-to-face with the legendary ghost, the Headless Horseman?
The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow, will feature the voice talents of Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, Anton Yelchin and Hank Azaria, all of whom reprise their roles from The Smurfs 2. It will be available on DVD on September 10.
In spite of a soft third-place opening in the United States, Sony’s Smurfs 2, directed by Raja Gosnell, managed to become the number one film globally last weekend. The film opened with just $17.5 million in U.S. theaters, but made up for it with $52.5 mil in over forty international markets. Even with the strong overseas opening, the film is unlikely to top the original Smurfs worldwide gross of $563.7 mil.
Illumination’s juggernaut Despicable Me 2 scored $10.1 mil in its fifth U.S. weekend, boosting its domestic cume to $326.4 mil. It also added $13.8 mil internationally, and after last weekend, its global gross is $716.7 mil. It is the third highest-grossing movie of the year so far, trailing only Iron Man 3 and Fast & Furious 6. Disney’s Monsters University earned $1.4 mil domestically and $11.4 mil internationally. Its global total is $613.5 million through last weekend.
In Japan, Hayao Miyazaki’s Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) held onto the top spot in its third week of release. The film grossed $5.6 mil from 454 screens, and has a Japanese box office total of $44.3 mil.
Here is Britney Spears’ explanation for why she did this Smurfs music video called “Ooh La La”:
“The main reason why I did it was because my boys. They’re obsessed with the Smurfs. We’ve seen The Smurfs movie a million trillion times and they were told they could be in the video and all this cool stuff, so that’s the reason why I did it. It’s about feeling good. Like when a guy makes you giddy. It’s more of a feeling. When I eat chocolate I have that ‘ooh la la’ feeling.”
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