Dwayne Johnson's latest disaster movie San Andreas had a whopping $53.2 million debut weekend at 3,777 U.S. domestic movie theaters.
Produced by Village Roadshow, Rat Pac and New Line and costing $100 million, the Warner Bros. movie release collected more than five times the amount of Sony's Aloha, a romantic comedy film starring Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone, with a $10 million opening at sixth place, based on Rentrak's ticket sales report.
The Brad Peyton/Rock collaboration received a positive response and attracted 70 percent of the over-25 crowd and 44 percent of the 3D moviegoers.
The Rock has been a major factor that lifted this American 3D disaster movie to overcome the worries of the West Coast audiences, especially the ones from the earthquake-prone areas, according to Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution.
The earthquake adventure film would likely be Dwayne Johnson's biggest "all by myself" blockbuster hit by a strong margin. The previous largest opening debut for a "by myself" movie for The Rock is the $36 million weekend of The Scorpion King way back in 2002.
"For it to perform in this way when typically the summer is driven by sequels proves the power of Dwayne Johnson at the box office. He's a seismic event all on his own," stated Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak.
The movie tells the story of how The Rock saves his family from a massive magnitude 9 earthquake, navigating the California destruction from Los Angeles to San Francisco with a search-and-rescue helicopter.
Meanwhile, several critics strike down the Aloha movie, calling it confusing and Cameron Crowe's worst film ever despite the all-star cast of Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, and Bradley Cooper. Rotten Tomatoes gave the controversial film a score of just 17 percent.
Audiences, however, scored San Andreas 3.5 out of 5 stars on average. Aloha was given just 2 out of 5 stars.
Year to date records indicate box office revenues for Canada and U.S. theaters are up nearly 5 percent at $4.26 billion, while attendance has increased to more than 4 percent.
The figures below are estimated ticket sales from Friday until Sunday at Canada and U.S. movie theaters, including the latest international figures if applicable, based on Rentrak's reports.
1. San Andreas, $53.2 million ($60 million international).
2. Pitch Perfect 2, $14.8 million ($10.4 million international).
3. Tomorrowland, $13.8 million ($29.3 million international).
4. Mad Max: Fury Road, $13.6 million ($21.6 million international).
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron, $10.9 million ($17.6 million international).
6. Aloha, $10 million.
7. Poltergeist, $7.8 million ($6.6 million international).
8. Far From the Madding Crowd, $1.4 million.
9. Hot Pursuit, $1.4 million.
10. Home, $1.2 million ($2.7 million international).
