‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Expected to Be Next Blockbuster Movie

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 7, 6:31AM EDT

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As the movie industry claws to match last year’s total revenue, each week’s major releases become essential building blocks toward that $10.9 million. The next film that has a chance to boost numbers for 2014 much higher is “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” which comes out July 11.

The Planet of the Apes franchise already has a history of success that dates back to the original picture, which starred Charlton Heston and was released in 1968. Its domestic total gross was $38.6 million, which was an impressive success for that time.

One good sign for the seventh picture in the franchise is that domestic box office numbers for the series has risen with each release. The exceptions are the most recent two. “Planet of the Apes” 2001 posted total domestic ticket sales of $180 million. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” released in 2011 did $176.8 million. According to Box Office Mojo, adjusted for inflation, the series has brought in $867.7 million.

Box Office Mojo has great hopes for the latest installment. In its summer 2014 forecast, its editors reported:

With goodwill from the first installment and a strong mid-July release date, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes should top its predecessor’s domestic gross. Thanks to the addition of 3D, look for big gains overseas as well. (Domestic: $240 million, Foreign: $460 million)

As a rule, it is better for a major film to be part of a franchise than not. The seven most successful movies of 2014 prove that — among them “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” in first place so far, “X-Men: Days of Future Past” in third place, “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” in fifth place and the recently released “Transformers: Age of Extinction” in seventh place.

“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” should be one of the 20 most successful movies of 2014, giving the movie industry a chance to match last year’s total take.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.