Despite competition from three new movies in wide release this weekend, Marvel's Ant-Man held on to the top spot at the box office with $24.7 million. The studio's final Phase Two adventure dropped 56.7% from last weekend's $58 million tally, currently standing at $106 million domestically and $120.4 million internationally for a worldwide total of $226.4 million, from a $130 million budget. The superhero movie pulled in a respectable $6,403 per-screen average this weekend from 3,868 theaters, and its 56.7% drop is actually better than The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: The First Avenger, both of which dropped more than 60% in their second weekends in theaters.
Ant-Man just barely beat out its top competitor this weekend, Sony Pictures' video game comedy Pixels, which debuted in second place with an estimated $24 million. Pixels scored a $6,446 per-screen average from 3,723 theaters, opening far lower than many projections, some of which had it earning over $40 million this weekend. The film, which stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad, wasn't received too well by the nation's critics, with just a 19% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Holdovers Minions and Trainwreck, both from Universal, each dropped a spot to third and fourth place, respectively, with Minions taking in $22.1 million and Trainwreck earning $17.3 million. Minions has pulled in $261.6 million domestically since opening on July 10, and an additional $497 million internationally for a worldwide haul of $759.4 million. It seems likely that the animated comedy will be the third Universal Pictures movie to crack $1 billion worldwide this year, following Jurassic World ($1.54 billion) and Furious 7 ($1.51 billion), a feat never before achieve by any studio. While not nearly as big of a hit as the other Universal blockbusters, Trainwreck is still fairing well with $61.5 million from a $35 million budget.
Rounding out the top 5 this weekend is The Weinstein Company's boxing drama Southpaw with $16.5 million from 2,772 theaters for a $5,952 per-screen average. The film was budgeted at $30 million, so it should fare decently in the weeks to come. Debuting in sixth place is Paper Towns, opening with $12.5 million. The YA adaptation of John Green's novel has already earned back its $12 million budget, but it's still far less than the opening weekend of the author's last adaptation, The Fault in Our Stars, which opened with $48 million last June. The top 10 is rounded out by Inside Out ($7.3 million, $320.3 million domestic), Jurassic World ($6.9 million, $623.8 million domestic), Mr. Holmes ($2.8 million, $6.4 million domestic) and Terminator Genisys ($2.4 million, $85.6 million domestic).
Next weekend only brings us two new movies in wide release, one of which opens on Wednesday. The comedy remake Vacation debuts on Wednesday, July 29, with Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation arriving on Friday in wide release. There are also two other notable films debuting in limited release, the documentary A Lego Brickumentary and The End of the Tour, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel. Be sure to come back next Friday for our full predictions for next weekend's box office race, but until then, check out this weekend's top 10 below.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: