NORTH AMERICA: Weekend Actuals: 'Ant-Man' Leads with Solid, but Uneventful $57.2M Debut; 'Minions' Falls to Second with $49.3M; 'Trainwreck' Takes Third with Promising $30.1M Start

By Daniel Garris

Disney's Ant-Man debuted in first place this weekend with $57.23 million. The Paul Rudd led comic book film from Marvel opened on the low end of pre-release expectations, which had tended to range from $57 million to $65 million heading into the weekend. Ant-Man delivered the second smallest debut ever for a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, which had been largely expected given the lower profile status of Ant-Man in comparison to other superheroes in previous MCU films. Ant-Man did open 3 percent ahead of the $55.41 million debut of 2008's The Incredible Hulk and a reasonable 12 percent behind the $65.06 million start of 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger.

Ant-Man opened with $22.65 million on Friday (which included a sizable $6.4 million from Thursday evening shows), fell 14 percent on Saturday to gross $19.46 million and declined 22 percent on Sunday to take in $15.11 million. That gave the film an opening weekend to Friday ratio of 2.53 to 1. The audience breakdown for the film skewed towards male moviegoers (58 percent) and towards moviegoers over the age of 25 (55 percent). Family audiences made up an estimated 28 percent of the film's overall audience (which was a bit higher than the 22 percent families represented for Avengers: Age of Ultron back in May). Ant-Man received a strong A rating on CinemaScore, which is a good early sign going forward. However, the film will also be facing tough direct competition over the next few weeks from the likes of Sony's Pixels, Paramount's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Fox's Fantastic Four.

Minions was down one spot from last weekend to claim second with $49.27 million. The blockbuster 3D computer animated spin-off from Universal and Illumination Entertainment didn't hold up as well as had been expected, as it was down a sharp 57 percent in its second weekend. Minions likely took a larger hit among the non-family portion of its audience, which had been fairly large in size last weekend. While Minions is set to be significantly more front-loaded than both of the previous installments of the Despicable Me franchise, the film is still performing extremely well in the bigger picture, especially with its relatively modest cost for a computer animated film in mind.

Minions zoomed past the $200 million domestic mark this weekend and has grossed $215.77 million through ten days of release. That places the film 9 percent ahead of the $197.93 million ten-day take of Despicable Me 2, though Minions does have an advantage in the current comparison as a result of Despicable Me 2 being a Wednesday release. Whether or not Minions is able to stabilize next weekend will likely have a lot to do with just how much appeal Pixels ultimately has with family audiences.

Fellow Universal release Trainwreck was off to an impressive start this weekend with a third place take of $30.10 million. The Amy Schumer led comedy from director Judd Apatow opened just ahead of its wide ranging expectations, which were anywhere from $20 million to $30 million heading into the weekend. Strong critical reviews, high levels of pre-release hype (surrounding both the film and Schumer) and the built-in fanbases of Schumer and Apatow all helped lead to the film's successful launch. Trainwreck opened 15 percent ahead of the $26.25 million debut of 2011's Bridesmaids and only 2 percent below the $30.69 million debut of 2007's Knocked Up.

Trainwreck started out with $10.74 million on Friday, (which included an estimated $1.8 million from Thursday evening shows), increased 3 percent on Saturday to gross $11.07 million and decreased 25 percent on Sunday to take in $8.29 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.80 to 1, which is a strong figure for a romantic comedy, especially during the summer months. The audience breakdown for Trainwreck skewed heavily towards both female moviegoers (66 percent) and moviegoers 30 years and older (63 percent). Trainwreck received an A- rating on CinemaScore, which is likely a bit stronger than it sounds given that previous films from Apatow have a tendency of displaying stronger holding power than their ratings on CinemaScore would suggest. Trainwreck is extremely likely to hold up very well throughout the rest of the summer, though whether or not its holding power can reach the same levels of Knocked Up or Bridesmaids remains to be seen.

In other box office news, Inside Out surpassed the $300 million domestic mark after placing in fourth this weekend with $11.54 million. With the initial rush-out for Minions now out of the way, Inside Out stabilized nicely this weekend by decreasing just 35 percent from last weekend. The blockbuster 3D computer animated film from Disney and Pixar has grossed a very impressive $306.25 million in 31 days and is very likely to continue to hold up well going forward thanks in part to strong word of mouth and the relative lack of other high-profile animated releases throughout the rest of the summer.

Universal's Jurassic World rounded out the weekend's top five with $11.45 million. In the process, the 3D sci-fi adventure blockbuster sequel became just the fourth film ever to surpass the $600 million domestic mark without adjusting for ticket price inflation. Jurassic World reached the $600 million mark in just 36 days; easily making it the fastest film ever to do so (previous record holder 2009's Avatar reached the mark in 47 days). Jurassic World continues to display strong holding power in its own right (especially when considering the new direct competition it faced from Ant-Man), as it was down a very solid 37 percent. Jurassic World has grossed a massive $611.23 million in 38 days and is now just $12.13 million away from surpassing the $623.36 million final gross of 2012's Marvel's The Avengers to move into third place on the all-time unadjusted domestic list.

Meanwhile, Terminator Genisys and Magic Mike XXL didn't hold up anywhere near as well with respective sixth place and seventh place takes of $5.40 million and $4.45 million. Paramount's Terminator Genisys fell a troubling 61 percent from last weekend while Warner's Magic Mike XXL was down a sharp 54 percent. Terminator Genisys clearly took a direct hit from Ant-Man this weekend, while Magic Mike XXL was slowed further by the arrival of Trainwreck. Both films continue to under-perform with respective 19-day totals of $80.64 million for Terminator Genisys and $58.58 million for Magic Mike XXL.

In limited release, Eros' Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Roadside's Mr. Holmes were off to healthy respective starts of $2.62 million and $2.43 million. Bajrangi Bhaijaan averaged a strong $10,239 from 256 locations, while Mr. Holmes claimed an encouraging per-location average of $6,745 from 361 locations. Bajrangi Bhaijaan took ninth place among all films this weekend and Mr. Holmes placed in eleventh.