Poor Seth MacFarlane. While huge swathes of the country celebrated a historic victory for marriage equality, this brave and tireless civil-rights crusader could do nothing but watch as his stirring, timely tale of a teddy bear who compares his own plight for personhood to the struggles of “fags” and “homos”—the bear’s parlance, not ours—failed to draw big crowds. Despite a classy (and since deleted) tweet from MacFarlane reminding folks that the SCOTUS ruling was perfect occasion to see his movie about a loudmouth bigot who fancies himself a victim, Ted 2 landed in third place this weekend with a so-so $33 million. That might sound like a lot of money—it’s certainly not nothing—but keep in mind that the original Ted, a non-franchise R-rated comedy, made $54 million in its first weekend. (The sequel at least did better than MacFarlane’s previous big-screen venture, last summer’s underperforming A Million Ways To Die In The West.) During these times of national pride and celebration, won’t someone think of our less fortunate Oscar hosts and their dignity-deprived, dignity-trampling creations?
While Ted 2 waged a losing battle against audience indifference, nostalgia for your childhood edged out nostalgia for your kids’ childhood. In a very close race, Jurassic World took the number one spot on the box-office charts for a third weekend in a row, with $54.2 million to Inside Out’s $52.1 million. The dino-heavy sequel took just 17 days to cross the $500 million mark, so add that to its pile of records. It’s now the fifth highest domestic grosser of all time, with number four, The Dark Knight, within striking (chomping?) distance. But don’t cry for Inside Out, just cry at it: Pixar’s latest tearjerker hit is still doing strong business, rolling out slowly across the globe, performing a heart-punching number on parents of all languages.
Speaking of heart, America’s was apparently too preoccupied this weekend to spare much love for a heroic military mutt. Max, that very strange film about a pooch with PTSD, only sniffed out $12 million or so—though that’s about what Warner Bros. was expecting from it. The film is rocking an “A” CinemaScore going into the most patriotic of American holiday weeks, so maybe this dog will still have its day. It never barks any slurs, so that could help.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.