Twentieth Century Fox has themselves a young adult hit as moviegoers found few faults in The Fault in Our Stars and helped the studio cash in a mammoth opening day. Tom Cruise and Edge of Tomorrow finished a distant second and like many expensive action films that underperformed before it, salvation will lie on the shoulders of international markets.
With Divergent star Shailene Woodley in the lead, The Fault in Our Stars began its box office domination late Thursday night when tweens and teens turned out en masse to watch the big screen adaptation of the novel of the same name. The $8.2 million take that night was only a sign of things to come as Fault lit up the domestic box office on Friday with $26.1 million, almost $2 million more than Disney’s Maleficent powered by Angelina Jolie bagged a week ago.
The Fault in Our Stars even beat the much more expensive Divergent by $3.3 million and stands poised to blow even the raised estimates heading into this weekend out of the water. We predicted a haul pushing $50 million for the three-day opening weekend. However, Friday’s huge tally now pushes estimates north to around $55 million.
Not even a steady stable of solid reviews could attract moviegoers to Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt’s Edge of Tomorrow as it floundered in second place on Friday with $10.7 million. It’s current trajectory for the weekend now aims below $30 million and that’s a major misfire for Warner Bros. no matter which way you slice it.
Pre-order The Fault in Our Stars on Blu-ray at Amazon.com.
Pre-order The Fault in Our Stars on DVD at Amazon.com.
The silver lining for Edge of Tomorrow could be the foreign box office where Cruise’s star power has already drummed up just over $60 million in ticket sales. Given the film’s bloated $178 million estimated budget, the odds of Edge of Tomorrow approaching the edge of profitability are slim to none.
Edge of Tomorrow narrowly edged Maleficent on Friday for second place as Disney’s hit earned $10.14 million in its eighth day of release, a 58 drop from its opening day. It will cross $30 million through Sunday and has already quickly punched through the $100 million milestone. Jolie dropped hints about a sequel during the film’s international press tour, and at this point it’s hard to imagine Disney not pursuing one aggressively.
We’ll be back on Sunday afternoon with the complete weekend box office studio estimates for the top 10 as well as analysis, including how high The Fault in Our Stars was able to soar.
