“San Andreas” may be getting panned by seismologists, but it is No. 1 at the North American box office, with an earthshaking $53.2 million in opening weekend receipts.
The latest movie to tap into America’s fantasies about destroying California has box office strength that “intensified throughout the weekend as the pure popcorn movie excitement movie excitement that the film delivers makes for a terrific summertime movie-going experience,” said Hollywood industry analyst Paul Dergarabedian, at Rentrak.
The opening weekend gross estimates were “much better than expected,” he said.
“Pitch Perfect 2” was in second place in its third week, with a $14.8 million take this weekend, $147.5 over three weeks domestically, and a worldwide total gross of $228.2 million.
Rounding out this weekend’s top 10 movies in the U.S. and Canada, as projected by the studios and collated by Rentrak, were “Tomorrowland” ($13.8 million), “Mad Max: Fury Road” ($13.6 million), “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” ($10.9 million), “Aloha” ($10 million), “Poltergeist” ($7.8 million), “Far From The Maddening Crowd” ($1.4 million), “Hot Pursuit” ($1.4 million) and “Home” ($1.2 million).
— City News Service