Harry and Lloyd ruled the box office once again while Disney’s Big Hero 6 and Interstellar performed well in their second weeks.
Nearly 20 years after audiences were first introduced to bumbling morons Harry and Lloyd, Dumb & Dumber To finished in first with a $38.05 million opening weekend. The sequel was Jim Carrey’s biggest opening since 2003’s Bruce Almighty and the best opening ever for the Farrelly Brothers.
The audience demographics for Dumb & Dumber To were 55 percent male and 57 percent over the age of 25. The filmed earned a mediocre “B-” Cinemascore grade and coupled with terrible reviews and stiff competition from The Hunger Games, Penguins of Madagascar and Horrible Bosses 2 in the coming weeks, the film could dip quickly.
Meanwhile, two films that didn’t dip much were Big Hero 6 and Interstellar. Disney’s animated flick dipped 36 percent from its opening week and banked $36.05 million. The film has a 10-day total of $147 million worldwide, which is still off from its $165 million production budget.
Interstellar added $29.2 million to its total to finish third. The film dipped 39 percent from opening weekend and IMAX screenings continue to boost the film’s box office total. IMAX screenings brought in $7.4 million or about 25 percent of the overall weekend gross for the film.
Christopher Nolan’s epic did big business internationally as well, especially in China. Playing in 63 countries, the movie added $106 million to bump its international total to $224.1 million in two weeks. China accounted for $42 million of that total over the course of five days while South Korea added $15.8 million in its second weekend. The film has now grossed $322.7 million worldwide.
Opening in a distant fourth place finish was Beyond the Lights with $6.5 million. The film was the latest from Love & Basketball and The Secret Life of Bees director Gina Prince-Bythewood and saw an audience that was 61 percent female and 55 percent over the age of 25. Earning a solid “A” Cinemascore and strong reviews, the film also saw a 49 percent African American audience turnout.
Gone Girl rounded out the top five with $4.6 million to bring its domestic total to $152.7 million and its worldwide gross to $318.8 million. The film leaped over Divergent and Neighbors for the 13th highest domestic gross this year and trails How to Train Your Dragon 2 for 12th by $24 million.
The bottom half of the top ten featured St. Vincent ($4.025 million), Fury ($3.81 million), Nightcrawler ($3.04 million), Ouija ($3.025 million) and Birdman with $2.45 million. Birdman continues to expand as awards season approaches and had its best weekend yet to bring its total to $11.575 million in five weeks of limited release.
The only wide release to open this weekend will be The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. Early estimates have the film opening at around the $150 million neighborhood. The first film opened at $152.5 million while Catching Fire debuted with $158 million.