Box office Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was a success at the box office with many critics calling it "the summer's best popcorn film", and
Deadline Hollywood commented saying it is "a franchise that will keep going and going, unless they screw it up". The film grossed $208.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $502.1 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $710.6 million. It had a worldwide opening of $103.3 million which was the 11th highest of 2014. Worldwide it is the highest-grossing film in the
Planet of the Apes franchise In the United States and Canada, the film is the highest-grossing film in the
Planet of the Apes franchise, unadjusted for inflation and the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2014. It opened on July 11, 2014, across 3,967 theaters and topped the box office on its opening day earning $27.7 million (including previews). During its traditional three-day opening, the film debuted at number one earning $72.6 million, which was 33% higher than its predecessor.
Box Office Mojo pointed out that the film's good
word of mouth as well as its predecessors', its darker tone, attachment of new characters and the first film's
way of ending were all determining factors in the film's strong opening. It remained at the summit for two consecutive weekends in North America despite facing competition with
The Purge: Anarchy in its second week.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes earned $31.3 million during its opening weekend internationally from 4,913 screens in 26 markets, where it opened at No. 1 in 14 of those. International opening weekend tallies of more than $5 million were witnessed in the UK ($14.88 million), Mexico ($12.94 million), South Korea ($11.5 million), Russia ($9.99 million), Brazil with ($9.2 million) and Australia ($6.6 million). The film topped the box office outside North America for two non-consecutive weekends. The film became a massive financial success in China, where it opened with $47 million on its opening weekend there. The robust debut helped the film top the international charts for the first time dethroning
Guardians of the Galaxy and aided the film in passing $400 million internationally and $600 million globally. Fox reported that the sequel's debut in China was one of the best in history for a Western title, save for
Iron Man 3,
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and
Transformers: Age of Extinction at that time. After playing for a month in theaters, it passed $100 million on its fourth weekend and became the fourth Hollywood film of the year to achieve such a milestone. In total, it went on to make $107.4 million there, of which the studio received $26.8 million profit.
Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100 based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. Guy Lodge of
Variety said, "An altogether smashing sequel to 2011's better-than-expected
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, this vivid, violent extension of humanoid ape Caesar's troubled quest for independence bests its predecessor in nearly every technical and conceptual department, with incoming helmer Matt Reeves conducting the proceedings with more assertive genre elan than
Rise journeyman Rupert Wyatt."
Todd McCarthy of
The Hollywood Reporter stated that the film "manages to do at least three things exceptionally well that are hard enough to pull off individually: Maintain a simmering level of tension without let-up for two hours, seriously improve on a very good first entry in a franchise and produce a powerful humanistic statement using a significantly simian cast of characters. In the annals of sequels,
Dawn is to
Rise of the Planet of the Apes what
The Empire Strikes Back was to
Star Wars—it's that much better." Tim Robey of
The Daily Telegraph said, "There's evident patience and intelligence to the filmmaking all over, as well as an engagement with genuine ideas about diplomacy, deterrence, law and leadership. However often it risks monkey-mad silliness, it's impressively un-stupid." Drew McWeeny of
HitFix awarded the film an "A+" grade and said "
Dawn is not just a good genre movie or a good summer movie. It's a great science-fiction film, full-stop, and one of the year's very best movies so far." Ty Burr of
The Boston Globe wrote that "in bearing, speech, and agonized expressiveness, Serkis's Caesar conveys the conflicts of a king with almost
Shakespearean grandeur."
A. O. Scott of
The New York Times praised the film for being able to balance out the action sequences and special effects with strong storytelling, writing that "
Dawn is more than a bunch of occasionally thrilling action sequences, emotional gut punches and throwaway jokes arranged in predictable sequence. It is technically impressive and viscerally exciting, for sure, but it also gives you a lot to think, and even to care, about." Less favorable reviews included Andrew O'Hehir at
Salon.com who wrote, "Here's a rule that has gradually become clear to me: Any film that begins with one of those fake-news montages, where snippets of genuine CNN footage are stitched together to concoct a feeling of semi-urgency around its hackneyed apocalypse, already sucks even before it gets started. This one makes a dutiful attempt to struggle back from that suckage, but it all ends in yelling."
Home media Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was released by
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD on December 2, 2014. According to
Nielsen VideoScan, it subsequently became the best-selling home video release for the week.
Accolades == Sequel ==