Monsters university box office, There was good news to spare at the box office this weekend, as "Monsters University" and "World War Z" both enjoyed solid openings.
The prequel to the 2001 hit "Monsters Inc." from Walt Disney Co.'s DIS +1.21% Pixar Animation Studios took in estimated $82 million in the U.S. and Canada. That is the second-highest launch ever for Pixar, behind only 2010's "Toy Story 3."
"World War Z," an adaptation of the best-selling novel about a zombie apocalypse and starring Brad Pitt opened to $66 million. That was well ahead of expectations based on pre-release surveys and allowed executives at Viacom Inc.'s VIAB +0.72% Paramount, who endured bad buzz amid extensive and expensive reshoots on the movie last year, to breathe a sigh of relief.
"It was a great weekend for the industry overall," said Dave Hollis, Disney's executive vice president in charge of distribution.
Despite mixed reviews and critics' grumbling about Pixar's growing predilection for sequels, audiences seemed to love "Monsters University," giving it an opening weekend average of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore.
While animated movies always draw big family audiences to matinees, Mr. Hollis said evening shows for "Monsters University" were better than for recent Pixar releases "Brave" and "Cars 2," likely due to adults with fond memories of "Monsters Inc."
In the 35 foreign markets where the film also opened, it took in an additional $54.5 million.
"World War Z" must still perform well in the U.S. and overseas in coming weeks to end up profitable, but Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore said he was more than satisfied with the movie's launch.
Last fall the studio reshot the entire finale of the movie, turning a large-scale battle into a more subtle sequence similar to a horror movie. While that generated speculation in Hollywood that the movie was in trouble, Paramount executives noted that the opening was particularly strong for a non-sequel. Audiences, who were mostly over 25 and evenly split between men and women, gave it a CinemaScore of B+.
"This is as big as a movie gets when you're starting to build an audience from scratch," said Mr. Moore, who argued that given the huge budget of "World War Z," its status as a best-selling book provided little of the needed audience.
"World War Z" cost around $200 million to make after the reshoots. Seeking to spread the film's many risks—including that Mr. Pitt had never carried a movie of this size by himself—Paramount brought in three financial partners.
The studio itself paid for about one-third of the production budget, while Skydance Productions, GK Films and Hemisphere Media Capital split the rest.
"World War Z" also opened to $45.8 million in 25 international markets.
After a blockbuster $117 million opening last weekend, ticket sales for "Man of Steel" tumbled 65% to $41.2 million. That's the biggest second-weekend drop for a big-budget movie this summer and a sign that word-of-mouth on the Superman reboot isn't strong.
Still, Warner Bros. executive vice president of domestic distribution Jeff Goldstein described the world-wide total so far as "fantastic." "Man of Steel" has taken in $210 million domestically and another $188 million overseas.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Monsters university box office
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