“Planes” Opening Outperforms “Turbo” and “Smurfs 2”

Disney’s Planes opened in the United States in third place with an estimated $22.5 million this weekend. The debut of the DisneyToon Studios film, which was originally slated to be a direct-to-video release, topped the opening weekends of DreamWorks’ Turbo ($21.3 mil) and Sony’s Smurfs 2 ($17.5 mil). Planes cost $50 mil to produce, which is modest compared to the recent DreamWorks and Sony pics which cost $135-145 mil to produce. The film is a sad reminder to other studios: Disney can skimp on production quality and still do better than its competitors because of the strength of its all important Disney brand.

Smurfs 2 dropped 46% in its second outing with an estimated $9.5 mil. The film has grossed a paltry $46.6 mil in America. Despicable Me 2 held steady in its sixth weekend, with a ninth place finish of $5.7 mil and a massive total of $338.3 mil, which makes it the fifth highest-grossing American animated feature of all-time. Turbo crashed out of the top ten, landing in 12th place with $2.3 mil in its fourth weekend. The film suffered a huge 64% week-to-week drop and has made $75 mil to date.

Internationally, the number one film in the world was Smurfs 2 for the second weekend in a row. The film pulled in $34.6 mil from international territories. The film’s global total (international and US grosses combined) is only $156.6 mil though, and the film should fall well short of the original film’s $563.7 mil gross. Despicable Me 2 added $12.2 mil from international territories. It has earned $407.5 mil overseas to date, and has a combined global gross of $745.8 mil.