Weekend Box Office Report

The Memorial Day weekend brought with it the third Marvel superhero movie of 2014 and like 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' and 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2,' 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' opened to over $90 million at the box office. Sure, people online keep on wondering if audiences are getting tired of comic book films, but the box office keeps on saying otherwise.

Everyone expected 'Godzilla' to take the number one spot at the box office this weekend, but few people saw it doing business that rivals 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' and 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2.' 'Godzilla' didn't just win the box office this weekend, it conquered it, proving that after all of these years, the king of the monsters is still a massive draw.

It turns out that 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' didn't need the Sinister Six to bring it down. All that was required was Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and a very funny marketing campaign. 'Neighbors' not only opened at number one at the box office, it derailed its super-powered competition so dramatically that it may be difficult for it to fully recover.

As expected, 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' opened the summer movie season in style, overcoming mixed reviews to dominate the top 10 and cause every other film's weekend gross to tumble. Coming weeks will see if it can do the business of the other films in the franchise, but this is a strong start to what looks to be a jam-packed summer.

After nearly a month on top of the box office, 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' got taken down by a bunch of funny ladies. 'The Other Woman' effortlessly took the top spot, sending Marvel's latest superhero adventure to the number two slot and making the other new releases of the week look bad.

And here we are: five weeks into the new year and we already have our first major blockbuster of 2014. Early estimates had 'The LEGO Movie' opening big, but the animated adventure shattered all expectations this weekend, with universally positive reviews and word of mouth sending the film to a massive opening.

Ah, a week at the box office where the new release flies completely under the radar and everything else feels like it's just hanging out because there's nothing else to push it off the charts. Welcome to January. Welcome to the home of movies like 'I Frankenstein,' which was dead on arrival this weekend and will vanish into dollar theaters within the next week or so.

In the first truly busy weekend for new releases in 2014, Ice Cube and Kevin Hart took the competition, bent them over the knee and gave them a good spanking. Okay, you probably didn't want the image of those two spanking animated squirrels, demonic babies or Chris Pine in your head, but how else are we going to talk about the opening weekend for 'Ride Along'?

New releases have a habit of floundering in January, which tends to be one of Hollywood's biggest dumping grounds. Even this year's big January horror release, which is commonly a sure thing, floundered. What does tend to do well are the prestige pictures that opened late in the previous year (often in limited release) and finally expand in the new year, riding awards momentum to solid box office.

Over the past few years, the 'Paranormal Activity' series has established itself as one of the most inexpensive and reliable horror franchises around. Produced for (non-literal) pennies, they've consistently opened strong at the box office, ensuring a fast and efficient turnaround.

Although you'd think people would spend the holidays in their homes catching up with their families and what-not, they actually tend to go to the movies after opening gifts and having awkward conversations. And Christmas Day moviegoers had a bunch of options this week, with recent releases (and not-so-recent releases) still going strong and a whole bunch of new releases arriving to coincide with t