Monsters University proved that creatures going to school are far more popular than Brad Pitt battling zombies around the globe.
The sequel to the 2001 comedy Monsters Inc. ended up being a very lucrative venture for the studio. According to the numbers posted over at Forbes , the flick generated a cool $82 million over the weekend.
While these figures are certainly impressive, Monsters University couldn’t outshine the Disney-Pixar flick Toy Story 3 . The third entry in the beloved franchise earned $110 million during opening weekend in 2010.
However, director Marc Forster’s World War Z ended up making a considerable amount of money as well. The Brad Pitt-fronted zombie picture made approximately $66 million in ticket sales over the weekend. The $190 million horror flick still has a ways to go to recoup its budget, but the flick is off to a solid start.
The Hollywood Reporter explains World War Z is the biggest domestic opening for a Brad Pitt movie in cinematic history. The PG-13 zombie movie outpaced his 2005 action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith by around $16 million.
However, it remains to be seen if this number will help grease the proverbial wheels on the sequel Pitt recently teased at the Moscow International Film Festival. It’s also unclear if Monsters University will get a follow-up. Even if the studio decides to move forward with another sequel, Pixar’s schedule is so tight it could be years before it finds its way into theaters.
“The consistency of the quality that comes from Pixar and John Lasseter and his team is extraordinary. This movie had to live up to a very had to live up to a very high bar, and it did,” Disney’s Dave Hollis explained. He added that adults were showing up without their kids to check out the sequel.
Unfortunately for Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel , moviegoers largely abandoned the superhero flick in favor of other offerings. The numbers at Box Office Mojo suggest the movie made around $41 million at the box office. Still a tidy sum, but probably not the business Warner Bros. was hoping to get.
This weekend’s top 10 are listed below.
1. Monsters University – $82 million 2. World War Z – $66 million 3. Man of Steel – $41.2 million 4. This is the End – $13 million 5. Now You See Me – $7.8 million 6. Fast & Furious 6 – $4.7 million 7. The Internship – $3.4 million 8. The Purge – $3.4 million 9. Star Trek Into Darkness – $3 million 10. Iron Man 3 – $2.1 million
Did you catch Monsters University or World War Z over the weekend? Are you surprised the Disney-Pixar flick beat out Brad Pitt’s zombie movie?