In a titanic showdown of sequels this weekend—How to Train Your Dragon 2 vs. 22 Jump Street—the smart money was on the dragons.
But money has never been known for its intelligence. I don’t know about yours, but mine just sits in my wallet until I do something with it. And most moviegoers with money to spend plunked down their IQ-impaired green for the R-rated comedy. Go figure.
22 Jump Street outperformed already lofty expectations and shocked box office prognosticators, banking a whopping $60 million (estimated, of course) to claim the weekend win. The laugher, fronted by perpetually rising stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, scored the second-biggest opening for an R-rated comedy ever—trailing only The Hangover Part II. According to Box Office Mojo, 22 out-earned the debut of its predecessor (21 Jump Street) by 65%. I guess that Hill and Tatum will be going undercover for 23 Jump Street in the near future—this time, perhaps, as underpaid interns.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 out-earned its original, too—collecting $50 million to How to Train Your Dragon’s 2010 debut of $43.7 mil. But given that kid-centric animated fare typically cleans up during these long days of summer, Dragon 2 had to be a bit of a disappointment for DreamWorks. Why so sluggish? Box Office Mojo speculates that the action-centric trailers might’ve had something to do with it, as did the four-year gap between movies. Personally, I wonder whether some families might’ve been scared away by director Dean DeBlois’ assertion that one of the characters announces that he’s gay. (Never mind that this “coming out” party was so quick and muted as to be a near non-issue in the movie, according to our reviewer Adam Holz. Perhaps some parents who just heard DeBlois’ comments were not yet ready to discuss the nature of homosexuality with their 6-year-olds.)
But there may be hope yet for you Dragon lovers out there. The first Dragon was an (ahem) slow burn as well, and the second installment could have some staying power. We’ll see.
In its third week, Disney’s Maleficent is showing Dragon 2 how it’s done. Earning another $19 million, the horned lady held onto third place like grim death. The movie has already earned $163.5 million, making it the year’s sixth biggest money-maker.
Tom Cruise’s Edge of Tomorrow took in another $16.2 million to finish fourth. And last week’s champ, The Fault in Our Stars, lost more than two-thirds of its audience to tumble all the way to fifth. Moviegoers apparently like a good cry, but not two weeks in a row.
Final figures update: 1. 22 Jump Street, $57.1 million; 2. How to Train Your Dragon 2, $49.5 million; 3. Maleficent, $18.5 million; 4. Edge of Tomorrow, $16.5 million; 5. The Fault in Our Stars, $14.8 million.
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