‘Ant-Man’ inches past ‘Pixels’
Despite leading the newcomers, Pac-Man couldn’t devour the competition.
Video-game-inspired Pixels was nudged out by Ant-Man, which won the box office for a second weekend with $24.8 million, according to tracking firm Rentrak. Marvel’s latest superhero movie, starring Paul Rudd as the miniature vigilante, has now crawled to $106.1 million.
Coming in at No. 2, the Chris Columbus-directed Pixels netted $24 million, in line with expectations. The critically reviled sci-fi adventure stars Adam Sandler, Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage as a ragtag crew tasked with saving the world from aliens disguised as ’80s arcade-game characters.
With an estimated budget of $110 million, Pixels will “have to rely on that nostalgia factor” and hope for a strong international take, says Rentrak senior analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
In third, Minions scurried to $22.1 million for a global haul of $759.4 million, and Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck held strong with $17.3 million for fourth place and $61.5 million total.
Rounding out the top five, boxing film Southpaw was a knockout with $16.5 million its first weekend. Starring a bulked-up Jake Gyllenhaal, the dramatic heavyweight took a beating from critics but scored better with audiences, garnering 82% approval from moviegoers at review aggregate site RottenTomatoes.com.
Landing in sixth, coming-ofage drama Paper Towns brought in a disappointing $12.5 million. Based on John Green’s youngadult novel, the teen romance comes in much lower than cancer tale The Fault In Our Stars, which opened to $48 million.
With stronger reviews and a serious subject matter, Fault “crossed over to older audiences, and this was more of a lighthearted adventure,” Dergarabedian says. “Sometimes you’re the victim of your own success. Expectations were overblown for this one. (But) it’s still a good idea to be in the John Green business.”
Final numbers are expected Monday.