Coverage: Memorial Day movies underwhelm

Memorial Day weekend is typically the time that the movie studios unveil their summer blockbusters and rake in millions of dollars from consumers. But the offerings this holiday weekend, including “Alice through the Looking Glass” and “X-Men: Apocalypse,” underperformed.

Tre’vell Anderson of the Los Angeles Times had the news:

This weekend holiday is usually a bright spot for the industry, but this year’s three-day total is projected to nab an estimated $162 million to $163 million and over four days, $203 million to $204 million. This is a far cry from 2013’s record Memorial Day weekend, led by “Fast & Furious 6,” which pulled in a massive $314.2 million over four days.

Overall, however, box office numbers are up about 5% from last year’s Memorial Day weekend, which brought in $194.8 million over four days.

20th Century Fox’s “X-Men” sequel fared best this weekend, pulling in an estimated $65 million in ticket sales through Sunday with an expected total of $76 million through Monday, the end of the holiday weekend. This is well below analyst projections, which predicted more than $100 million through Monday. The studio was more modest with an estimated tally closer to $80 million.

“I don’t  know what to make of tracking sometimes,” said Chris Aronson, the studio’s head of distribution. “I think people tend to have short memories. While it’s easy to compare the last [‘X-Men’ movie], each and every one of these sequels are different entities. And we’re happy with how this one performed.”

Anthony D’Alessandro of Deadline Hollywood noted that both “X-Men” and “Alice” dropped on Saturday compared to Friday’s take:

The new titles — 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: Apocalypse and Disney’s Alice Through the Looking Glass — were both down on Saturday from their Friday returns, respectively -23% and -6%, which is putting a damper on weekend projections. Meanwhile, most of the holdovers in the top 10 posted increases. 

Fox is confident it will hit its $80M four-day projection for the fourth Bryan Singer X-Men movie after a $20.3M on Saturday, and a $65M FSS. Despite being blasted by critics, the studio has the upper hand here on Apocalypse with enthusiastic exit polls (A- CinemaScore, an 81% PostTrak positive score and a 63% definite recommend). The Pico Blvd. studio finds itself in a similar scenario with Apocalypse as they did with X-Men: The Last Stand, which was also loathed by critics loathed, but not dismissed by the masses. A Batman v. Superman situation apparently this is not. Still, we can’t ignore the fact that some want something more from this franchise, especially when it’s coming from the studio that released Deadpool. 

Meanwhile, Disney’s Alice 2 is the studio’s third Memorial Day bomb following last year’s Tomorrowland and 2010’s Prince of Persia with $28.1M over FSS and $35.6M for FSSM. While Alice 2 has a similar scenario of decent audience response (A- CinemaScore) and bad reviews like X-Men, it’s low tickets sales indicate it won’t have the leg factor of X-Men:Apocalypse. Despite Disney’s strategizing and planning for this sequel, no one was obviously eager to see it.

Anousha Sakoui of Bloomberg News reported on how much “Alice” and “X-Men” cost:

“X-Men: Apocalypse” was forecast to generate $69 million over three days and $82 million over four days, according to analysts at BoxOfficePro.com, while the studio was predicting more than $80 million through Monday. The picture cost $178 million to produce, according to Box Office Mojo, another researcher.

“Alice Through the Looking Glass” features Mia Wasikowska and Johnny Depp returning as Alice and the Mad Hatter. In the latest twist on the Lewis Carroll story, Alice travels back in time to save Wonderland from becoming a barren wasteland.

The film cost about $170 million to make, according to Box Office Mojo. Critics weren’t as kind as they were with the first Alice revival film in 2010, with just 30 percent giving positive reviews, according to Rottentomatoes.