• Entertainment & Connectivity

APEX Hollywood Shortlist: Tomorrowland Rockets to First Place on Sleepy Holiday Weekend

May 26, 2015  | Written by Tomas Romero

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By all accounts this was one of the sleepiest Memorial Day weekends on record. With ticket sales down an estimated 17 percent from last year and a whopping 39 percent from two years ago, if there is any silver lining here, it’s that there is literally nowhere to go but up.

Opening in first place with an estimated four-day take of $41.7M was Disney’s Tomorrowland. Directed by Oscar-winner Brad Bird (The Incredibles) and starring George Clooney and the suddenly in-demand Britt Robertson (The Longest Ride), Tomorrowland spent most of the weekend in a dead heat with last week’s number one, Pitch Perfect 2, but managed to pull ahead by just enough to win the weekend. Must have been those super-cool thrusters on Clooney’s bathtub spaceship!

Singing their way to a second place finish with an estimated $38.5M, totalling $126M to date, Pitch Perfect 2’s Barden Bellas proved that they might just be able to hold those high notes all summer long. And with no real female-driven titles coming out until Fox’s Melissa McCarthy action-comedy Spy on June 5, the Bellas pretty much have the stage to themselves for the next two aca-awesome weekends.

Also opening wide this weekend with an estimated $26.5M was Fox’s remake of director Tobe Hooper and writer-producer Steven Spielberg’s landmark 1982 horror film, Poltergeist. Produced by hit maker Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, The Evil Dead), the new, Internet-age Poltergeist was directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House) and stars indie favorites, Sam Rockwell and Rosemary DeWitt, as parents trying to save their young daughter from spirits living inside their television. Only this time, the ghosties are able to leap into any personal electronic device of their choosing – so, watch out Siri!

And speaking of ghosts, When Marnie Was There was released over the weekend as well – possibly the final film from Studio Ghibli, the acclaimed Japanese animation studio who shuttered production indefinitely last August. Playing on only two screens, Marnie garnered an estimated $33K over the four-day window. Directed by Ghibli veteran Hiromasa Yonebayashi (The Secret World of Arrietty), Marnie’s English-language dub features a stellar cast including Hailee Steinfeld, John C. Reilly and Oscar-winners Geena Davis, Kathy Bates and Ellen Burstyn in a haunting tale about a lonely young girl seeking kinship with a mysterious blonde spirit while on vacation in the country.

Four-Day Memorial Weekend B.O. (Estimates): May 22-25, 2015