Friday Report: 'Pixels' Rules with Modest $9.2m, 'Ant-Man' and 'Minions' Fighting for Second, 'Southpaw' Strong and 'Paper Towns' Uneventful

     The top spot on Friday belonged to Adam Sandler's sci-fi comedy 'Pixels', which debuted to $9.2 million yesterday. That is a modest gross,
and way below pre-release expectations. The Adam Sandler film earned a lackluster 'B' CinemaScore, and critics aren't really enjoying the film either (19% on Rotten Tomatoes). For the three-day weekend, 'Pixels' should earn around $25 million.

     After opening to first place last week, Marvel's 'Ant-Man' dropped to second with a $7.2 million take. That is off a steep 68.1% from opening day. That drop is a bit worse than 'Thor: The Dark World' (-67%), 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (-67.9%), and 'Guardians of the Galaxy' (-67.5%), but is an improvement over 'Iron Man 3's 71.4% drop and 'The Incredible Hulk's 69% drop. The Paul Rudd-led action flick
has so far earned a lower-than-expected $88.5 million in 8 days of release and will likely end up in the range of $22-26 million this weekend.
    Fellow holdover 'Minions' placed in third yesterday to make $6.7 million. That is off 54%, which is steeper than 'Penguins of Madagascar' (-34.6%) and 'Puss in Boots' (+13.5%). Universal's 3D animated blockbuster is so far being pretty front-loaded, but nevertheless has earned an impressive $246.2 million in 15 days. 'Minions' should earn around $20-24 million for the weekend.
     'Paper Towns' ended up performing below expectations, with a modest $6.3 million. That is way below the $26.2 million opening day of 'The Fault in our Stars', though 'Fault' had more recognizable star power. 'Towns' is low-budgeted though ($12 million), and in the long run should be considered a hit. Its opening should be in line with about $13-15 million.

     The third wide-release newcomer this weekend, 'Southpaw', rounded out the Top 5 with a stronger-than-expected $6.2 million. That is a much better number than 'Nightcrawler's $3.2 million opening day, although that film opened on the day of Halloween, where moviegoers skip films to go trick-or-treating. Still, expect the boxer drama to earn around $15-18 million this weekend.
     Films outside the Top 5 still continued to do solid business, with 'Trainwreck' bringing in $5.3 million ($49.5m cume) and Inside Out pulling in $2.2 million ($315.2m cume) while Jurassic World added $2 million to its record-breaking run ($618.9m cume).