The disaster film did better than The Rock’s any other solo lead including Scorpion King, Walking Tall and Hercules
San Andreas is certainly shaking up the landscape of domestic box office as well as the career of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Despite poor critical reception, the earthquake disaster flick tops the U.S. box office this weekend, easily edging out “Pitch Perfect 2”, which currently holds second position with $14.8 million in its third week.
San Andreas racked in $53.2 million this weekend which is long way better than the initial projections. The film was expected to earn somewhere around $40 million, according to analysts.
San Andreas also turned out to be the biggest solo opening in the career of Dwayne Johnson so far. The film beaten out all of the Johnson’s previous solo leads including Scorpion King (36.1 million), Walking Tall (15.5 million), Faster (8.5 million), Snitch (13 million) and most recently Hercules with 29.8 million. It is also the largest opening ever for Dwayne Johnson’s all solo and ensemble films apart from Fast and Furious franchise. “Fast Five” earned $86.2 million in the opening weekend while “Furious 7” which is also the fourth-highest grossing movie of all time, pulled in $147 million in its debut weekend at the U.S. box office.
The film, which is based around the earthquake devastation and has incredible special effects, rocked the foreign box office as well. It earned $60 million from 60 global markets, making a total of $113 million worldwide.
San Andreas is directed by Bred Peyton who has been the helmer of Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, also involving Dwayne Johnson. The film is produced by Beau Flynn who has also been the producer of Johnson’s two previous films Journey 2 and Hercules, released in 2014.
San Andreas earned more than five times the other newly released film “Aloha” starring Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachael McAdams, which is a big disappointment indeed. Currently, the film is in 6th place and went on to make just $10 million in its opening weekend.
Tomorrowland ($13.8 million), Mad Max: Fury Road ($13.6 million) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($10.9 million) round out the top five this weekend.