San Andreas shakes competition
LOS ANGELES — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson outmuscled the competition at domestic movie theaters as the earthquake epic San Andreas hauled in about $ 55 million over last weekend. It was Johnson’s biggest debut for a nonsequel as the top- billed actor, according to box office tracker Rentrak.
“The action star helped the movie over- perform on the West Coast despite fears that audiences in earthquakeprone regions would stay away,” said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., which distributed the film made by its New Line unit.
“Some people felt they’d be a little nervous watching such a disaster hit both Los Angeles and San Francisco, but there was a curiosity factor,” Fellman said. “They went, they packed the theaters and they liked it.”
Aloha, the critically maligned romantic comedy from director Cameron Crowe, opened in sixth place with about $ 10 million.
A slew of critics slammed the movie — many calling it confusing, wondering whether parts of it were missing, and saying it was Cameron’s worst film ever despite the all- star cast of Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams. They combined to give it a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 17 percent.
Despite the star- studded cast, most critics have not been kind. Indiewire called it “shockingly bad,” and Variety said it was “unbalanced, unwieldy, and at times nearly unintelligible.” ( The Los Angeles Times’ review found charms in Crowe’s film and said the “bummer buzz” might partly stem from Aloha being “a messy, imperfect movie about messy, imperfect people.”)
Rory Bruer, Columbia Pictures’ president of worldwide distribution, said Aloha did well enough with women aged 25- 34 to overcome the negative buzz.
After showings, audiences gave San Andreas 3.5 out of 5 stars on average, while giving Aloha just 2 out of 5.
Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak’s senior media analyst, said the expectations- busting performance of San Andreas in theaters helped jolt Hollywood out of a funk that began on the long Memorial Day weekend.
“For it to perform in this way when typically the summer is driven by sequels proves the power of Dwayne Johnson at the box office,” Dergarabedian said. “He’s a seismic event all on his own.”
Although Aloha provided counterprogramming to the disaster flick, the romantic comedy didn’t draw nearly as many moviegoers. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film follows a defense contractor ( Bradley Cooper) after he falls in love with an Air Force pilot ( Emma Stone). The Hawaii- set film also stars Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski and Bill Murray.
Columbia partnered with 20th Century Fox, New Regency, LStar Capital and RatPac Entertainment on the film, which cost $ 37 million to make.
Pitch Perfect 2 was second, taking in about $ 15 million, for a three- week total of $ 147.5 million, according to Rentrak, which compiles box- office data. Tomorrowland was third, selling an estimated $ 14.3 million in tickets, for a two- week domestic total of about $ 64 million.