Weekend Box Office: 'Fault in Our Stars' Weakens, 'Edge of Tomorrow' Holds On

If you glance quickly at the box office results from last weekend, you’re likely to get an impression that’s very different from the one you’ll get if you look at the numbers more carefully. The weekend’s top movie performed well, but not as well as it first appeared, and the week’s underperforming film might not be as big a bomb as it seems.

“The Fault in Our Stars” began its debut weekend looking like it was going to be a huge hit. Thursday-night showings did massive business, and Friday was strong, too. Early on, it looked like the film was going to take in close to $60 million for the weekend. But business fell off sharply on Saturday and Sunday, and the film’s total take for the weekend was only about $48 million.

The audience for “Fault” was overwhelmingly female and young—likely fans of the book on which the movie was based—and it looks like they all ran out to see the film as soon as possible. Once the fan base was satisfied, interest dimmed, and the movie’s long-term prospects don’t look great.

On the other hand, Tom Cruise’s “Edge of Tomorrow” performed poorly over the weekend, taking in only $29 million. It’s likely that the lack of enthusiasm came from audience skepticism about Cruise, who is nowhere near as popular as he used to be, and uninspired marketing. But the movie is getting great reviews from critics, so it’s possible that it could continue to do decent business in the short term thanks to positive word of mouth.