'Fault in Our Stars' Tramples 'Edge of Tomorrow' on Opening Weekend Box Office

Movie

Thanks to both female audience as well as extensive promotions, the tear-jerker romantic movie scored $48.2 million in its opening weekend.

June 9, 2014

AceShowbiz -

"Edge of Tomorrow" had a painful opening at the domestic box office, succumbing to the female-driven power of "The Fault in Our Stars". The actioner starring Tom Cruise landed at number 3 with approximately $29.1 million which is about $10 million less than the number that the romance movie raked in.

"Fault in Our Stars" won the weekend with $48.2 million, thanks to the rising popularity of Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, who also co-starred in "Divergent", as well as the extensive promotions which included mall tour. The film tallied $26.1 million on Friday, with $8.2 million of that accrued from Thursday night previews plus a special engagement event.

By the time the film had broken presales records, "film industry experts began to realize that David was going to beat Goliath. In fact, Goliath did not even put up a fight," said David Mumpower, analyst for Box Office Prophets.

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"Edge of Tomorrow" did go to the extreme to promote the movie. Cruise and his co-stars attended 3 premieres in 3 cities; London, Paris and New York City; in 24 hours. However, Fox domestic marketing chief Marc Weinstock was also pushing it to the limit for "Fault in Our Stars". He told THR, "We had to make sure that every woman in this country knows about this movie, and wants to see it. At the same time, we spent a half or a third on the usual television spend. That's the difference. We were very specific and measured in everything we did."

Elsewhere in the weekend box office, "Maleficent" slipped to number 2 with approximately $33.5 million. "X-Men: Days of Future Past" sat at number 4 with an estimated $14.7 million while "A Million Ways to Die in the West" took the fifth position with an estimated $7.1 million.