Weekend Box Office Report: June 29th 2014

Age of Extinction wipes out the competition.

Transformers: Age of Extinction rolled out to an impressive $100 million opening in the U.S. and $301.3 million worldwide, becoming the top opening film of 2014. Its opening is not the highest of the series: that still belongs to Revenge of the Fallen ($108 million).

Although the film cost an estimated $210 million, the film has already made most of that back, even if you add marketing to that total. The success of its opening week can be traced to two things: Director Michael Bay reloading the cast with the more fan/press-friendly Mark Wahlberg and better heavyweights Stanley Tucci and Kelsey Grammer, and the Transformers name itself, which always guarantees large opening crowds and plenty of buzz. And while the film has gotten slammed on RottenTomatoes - with a measely 17% approval rate - it's faired better on other sites like CinemaScore, which was given an "A-" by fans. We weren't impressed at all with Age of Extinction, and have included our review here.

The real question will be longevity: can a 2 hour 35 minute Summer film continue to draw large crowds and repeat showings?

In distant, distant second place was 22 Jump Street, which fell 44% with $15.4 million. With $139 million in its domestic pocket, the comedy sequel has already graduated passed its predecessor. In terms of numbers, we may see it hold on as 2014's top comedy.

The number 3 movie this weekend was How to Train Your Dragon 2 which dropped 47% to with $13.1 million. While we loved the film, fans are not returning for repeated viewings, and the film is losing ground far faster than anyone expected. Still, it's made 121 million domestic and $227 million worldwide, but we're not sure why it hasn't been as popular as its predecessor.

Think Like a Man Too plummeted 64% to arrive $10.4 million. Based on BoxOfficeMojo's predictions, its final total will be a very weak $48.2 million, as compared to Think Like a Man which earned $91.5 million.

Angelina Jolie's Maleficent rounds out the top 5 with $8.2 million. It joins Captain America: The Winter Soldier as the only $200 million dollar pictures of 2014, although Godzilla is close behind.

At number 6 is Jersey Boys with $7.6 million, falling 43%. The Clint Eastwood movie based on the Tony Award-winning musical continues to stick around, although barely. It's earned only $27 million so far.

Edge of Tomorrow comes in at number 7 with $5.2 million, bringing its domestic total to a disappointing $84 million. This is not what Actor Tom Cruised envisioned, even though it received high marks on Metacritic (71%) and RottenTomatoes (92%). We loved the film, and its $318 million worldwide gross does prove Cruise can still lead a summer film.

With $223 million domestically and $712 million worldwide, X-Men: Days of Future Past pulled in another $3.3 million to come in at number 9. DoFP is now the highest grossing global release of 2014, surpassing The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($703M) and Captain America 2 ($711M). Sadly, it won't hold that record for long, with Age Of Extinction already half way there, which is sad considering we loved DoFP so much more.

Rounding out the top 10 is the little movie that could: Chef. With another respectable haul of $1.6 million, Director Jon Favreau continues to prove indie flicks can survive in the heat of the Summer, having earned $19 million on a budget far lower than that.

What films did you see over the weekend? Join the conversation by commenting below! Discuss this review with fellow SJF fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @SandwichJohnFilms, and follow author Matt Cummings at @mfc90125.