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‘Ant-Man’ Tops Weekend Box Office, ‘Minions’ Comes In Close Second

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 06:13 PST, Jul 20, 2015

Ant-Man topped the box office this weekend with an estimated $58 million, while Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck made its debut at $30.2 million. While this wasn’t the opening weekend for the Minions, the family comedy came in at a close second with $50.2 million, dropping 57 percent from its $115.7 million opening.

Ant-Man’s debut marked Marvel’s 12th consecutive first-place opening, although it did not do as well as many of the other Marvel films. It was the second-lowest domestic opening of any of Marvel’s superhero films, only ahead of The Incredible Hulk, which made $55.4 million on its debut weekend in 2008, according to Market Watch.

Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis said he wished Ant-Man, which starred Paul Rudd, had done better at the box office, but he was satisfied with the results.

“No one else could take what is really an obscure character and launch it in such a big way,” Hollis said, according to Reuters, via MSN. “It’s a sign that they’re doing so much right and that it’s a brand that has overwhelming momentum.”

“I say this was a success,” Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak’s senior media analyst, said. “This was never predestined to open with $80 (million) or $100 million. Marvel continues to evolve and surprised the audience. This was about a perfectly solid result for a brand new property.”

Hollis also praised the film for appealing to a wider variety of audiences than previous Marvel films — 42 percent of the audience was composed of women, while 28 percent were families. Normally, men are more apt to want to see the superhero type films, but with the humor incorporated, the appeal for women and families was broadened.

“Most encouragingly in this one, the exit scores we’re seeing from women — their likelihood to recommend and how much they enjoyed the film — was higher here than almost any film we’ve had,” Hollis said, the Associated Press reports, via Fox News. “It’s a great sign for what word of mouth should be for the run, but, two, what it means for how women think about these movies being for them as much as men might.”

Below are the box office results for the weekend of Friday, July 17 to Sunday, July 19.

  1. Ant-Man, $58 million ($56.4 million international).
  2. Minions, $50.2 million ($66.2 million international).
  3. Trainwreck, $30.2 million.
  4. Inside Out, $11.7 million ($21. 3 million international).
  5. Jurassic World, $11.4 million ($12.3 million international).
  6. Terminator Genisys, $5.4 million ($22.2 million international).
  7. Magic Mike XXL, $4.5 million ($5.8 million international).
  8. Gallows, $4 million ($2.1 million international).
  9. Ted 2, $2.7 million ($7.5 million international).
  10. Mr. Holmes, $2.5 million.

Did you attend Ant-Man’s opening weekend? What did you think about the newest Marvel film? Leave your comments below.

[Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images]

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