Movie

The action comedy movie came right behind Marvel's 'Ant-Man', earning $24 million from 3,723 theaters in its debut weekend.

• Jul 27, 2015

AceShowbiz - Adam Sandler's action comedy movie "Pixels" could not take the first position in its debut weekend as it was defeated by Marvel's "Ant-Man". "Pixels" opened to $24 million from 3,723 theaters.

Sony had spent $88 million to produce the comedy movie, but the opening gave another disappointment for Sandler. His performance was far behind the ones he performed in "Grown Ups" and "Just Go with It".

"Adam Sandler's audience is really no longer there theatrically like it once was," said Jeff Bock, a box office analyst with Exhibitor Relations. "They're not following him any more. It's not that Netflix is purgatory, but he probably wouldn't have made that deal if his films were still doing $100 million or more at the box office."

Although the film didn't open to a satisfying number for a summer movie, Sony distribution chief Rory Bruer stayed optimistic, "I don't feel like there is any bad news here. We opened to number one in a lot of countries and exceeded expectations." He added, "The gross in the U.S. is OK because this is a world play."

"Pixels" placed first in 23 territories this weekend. Major markets where it placed number one are Mexico ($3.7 million), Brazil ($3.1 million) and Argentina, Russia ($2.7 million) and Spain ($1.3 million).

Meanwhile, the shrinking superhero movie "Ant-Man" topped this weekend box office with $24.9 million from 3,868 theaters in its second weekend. So far, "Ant-Man" has earned $106.1 million Stateside.

Placing the third was the spin-off to "Despicable Me", "Minions", which grossed $22.9 million from 4,066 theaters, bringing the domestic total to $262.5 million.

Following "Minions" were "Trainwreck" and "Southpaw" which picked up $17.3 million and $16.7 million respectively. Although the Jake Gyllenhaal-starrer was on the fifth position, it did better than it was expected. Erik Lomis, the Weinstein Company's distribution chief, predicted a long run for "Southpaw", noting, "It appeals to the people on a mass level and it's a very satisfying film."

1. "Ant-Man" - $24.9 million
2. "Pixels" - $24 million
3. "Minions" - $22.9 million
4. "Trainwreck" - $17.3 million
5. "Southpaw" - $16.7 million
6. "Paper Towns" - $12.6 million
7. "Inside Out (2015)" - $7.4 million
8. "Jurassic World" - $7.2 million
9. "Mr. Holmes" - $2.9 million
10. "Terminator: Genisys" - $2.4 million