‘Planet of the Apes’ topples ‘Spider-Man’ in weekend debut
WAR for the Planet of the Apes, 20th Century Fox’s third instalment in the dystopian film series about a war between man and simian, opened as the No. 1 movie in North America this weekend, toppling Sony’s superhero feature Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Planet of the Apes took in an estimated US$56.5 million in US and Canadian theatres, researcher ComScore Inc. said in an email Sunday, while SpiderMan collected US$45.2 million to place second in its second weekend. The horror feature Wish Upon, the only other movie opening in wide release, brought in US$5.6 million for Broad Green Pictures.
The new Apes instalment from the film division of 21st Century Fox, while critically praised, got sandwiched between an equally loved Spider-Man and the widely anticipated Christopher Nolan war film Dunkirk, which comes out next weekend. It’s also contending with a generally tough climate for movies this summer, with domestic sales down from a year ago.
Directed by Matt Reeves, the film stars Andy Serkis as the ape leader Caesar, who confronts the Colonel, the merciless human leader played by Woody Harrelson, in a battle between humans and apes.
War for the Planet of the Apes cost Fox about US$150 million to make, according to Box Office Mojo. Forecasts for domestic weekend sales ranged from US$54 million at BoxOfficePro. com to US$70 million at Box Office Mojo. Rottentomatoes. com, which distills critics’ reviews into a single score, gave the film a 94 per cent positive rating. The latest Apes movie is the third in a series that started in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes and is the ninth going back to the original featuring Charlton Heston in 1968.
The most recent predecessor, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, cost US$170 million to produce and collected US$710.6 million in worldwide box-office sales in 2014. That film opened with weekend sales of US$72.6 million in North America, according to Box Office Mojo.
Second weekend forecasts for Spider-Man ranged from US$47 million to US$57.3 million. Wish Upon, starring Joey King and Ryan Phillippe, follows a teenage girl who discovers a box with magical powers. Soon bad things start to happen to the people around her.
The film cost about US$12 million to make, according to Box Office Mojo, which was forecasting weekend sales of US$7 million. The movie scored a low 23 per cent positive rating at RottenTomatoes.