Weekend Box Office: Planet of the Apes Double Up At Number One Over Purge Sequel

Friday was a bumper day for horror flick The Purge: Anarchy and for a moment it looked like it might be number one this weekend. But audiences for the movie got it out of their system opening night and the rest of the weekend went to last week’s number one Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Dawn continued to outpace Rise of the Planet of the Apes, earning $138 million in its tenth day. Rise had earned $105 million by that same point in its release.

The Purge: Anarchy landed in second place with $28 million, down a notch from last summer’s The Purge and its $34 million debut. Just the same, like most horror flicks, this series has been made on shoestring budgets and has already turned an easy profit for Universal.

Disney took a small gamble by sending spin-off sequel Planes: Fire & Rescue into theaters instead of direct to home video. With a $50 million budget plus a healthy marketing campaign to cover, the movie opened to a soft $18 million for a distant third place. Add in international sales and it’s only made $27 million total so far. But the last Planes movie also saw a small opening but enjoyed a slower than average drop off and a steady international take. With not much fresh family-friendly fare in theaters, Fire & Rescue will likely also see steady numbers over the long haul.

Sex Tape landed at number four with just $15 million. That’s on par for both Segel and Diaz comedies, and about what could have been expected given the barrage of unimpressed reviews and critical panning its received in the last week (it’s currently sitting on a painful 20% at Rotten Tomatoes). With bigger and better action movies on the near horizon, look for it to fade fast and quiet.