Box office
San Andreas grossed $155.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $319.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $474.5 million.[4] Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $88.07 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it eighteenth on their list of 2015's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".[47] Since its release, the film remains the highest-grossing live-action Hollywood original film of the past seven years as of July 2022.[48]
North America
San Andreas opened in North America across 3,777 theaters including a total of 3,200 3D locations.[49] Several days prior to the film's release various box office pundits were predicting a $40 million or more opening in North America.[3][50] It made $3.1 million from Thursday night showings[51] and $18.2 million on its opening day.[52][53] It earned $54.5 million in its opening weekend which was well above the tracking and predictions.[54][55] It was Johnson's biggest opening as a lead actor, surpassing the $36 million debut of his The Scorpion King in 2002 even after adjusting for inflation.[56] Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman commented about the successful opening, saying that audiences never get tired of disaster films, even going back to The Poseidon Adventure (1972). He added, "What also gets tiring is when you start to do sequels of the same thing. It needs to be fresh, and you have to have the right chemistry in the cast", pointing out the originality of the film, and the performances of Johnson and the other cast, as some of the factors behind the film's successful opening.[55] In its second weekend, it experienced a drop of 52% earning an estimated $26.4 million, falling in second place (behind Spy), but experiencing a smaller fall than that of other disaster movies.[57]
Outside North America
Outside North America, the film opened in a total of 60 countries in the same weekend, including France, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Australia.[58] It opened Wednesday, May 27 in 4 countries, added 38 countries on Thursday and 18 more countries on Friday, May 29[59] and through Sunday, May 31 earned a 5-day opening weekend total of $63.9 million from 15,420 screens in 60 countries debuting at first place in 55 of those countries as well as at the international box office.[60] In its second weekend, it added $97.7 million.[61] It topped the box office outside of North America for two consecutive weekends before being overtaken by Jurassic World in its third weekend.[61]
It had the biggest opening for a disaster movie and second-biggest for Warner Bros. in Mexico with $10.1 million from 3,100 screens.[60] In China, it had a three-day opening weekend of $35 million[62] and six-day opening total of $51.8 million from 8,795 screens,[61] although Chinese box office analysts site Entgroup reported a $55 million opening.[63] Despite health concerns over the MERS virus,[64] which resulted in the plunge of theater admissions,[65] the film opened to $7.2 million in South Korea (including Wednesday sneaks) and topped the box office.[61][66] It had similar successful openings in the UK, Ireland and Malta ($7.2 million), Russia and the CIS ($5.3 million), Brazil ($3.2 million) France ($3.1 million), India ($2.5 million), Australia ($2.4 million), Hong Kong ($2.2 million) and Germany ($2 million).[60][61] It became Warner Bros.' highest-grossing film of all time in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, and in China it is the fourth highest.[67][68] As of June 28, 2015 in total earnings, its largest market outside of North America are China ($103.2 million) and Mexico ($28.4 million).[69]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film has an approval rating of 48% based on 252 reviews and an average rating of 5.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "San Andreas has a great cast and outstanding special effects, but amidst all the senses-shattering destruction, the movie's characters and plot prove less than structurally sound."[70] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100 based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[71] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[72]
IGN awarded it a score of 7.5 out of 10, saying, "There are some cracks in the foundation, but San Andreas is solid popcorn fare thanks to sharp visuals and The Rock."[73]
Writing in Variety, Andrew Barker wrote, "Of the many charges that can be levied against Brad Peyton's San Andreas, false advertising is not one of them. The disaster pic promises nothing more than the complete CGI destruction of California as foregrounded by Dwayne Johnson's jackfruit-sized biceps, and it delivers exactly that".[74] Andrew O'Hehir wrote in Salon, "Considered as pure spectacle, San Andreas is gripping and effective, as well as a somewhat interesting form of counter-narrative: A vision of near-term apocalypse that has nothing to do with climate change, monsters or alien invaders".[75] Entertainment Weekly's critic Chris Nashawaty wrote, "As patently preposterous, scientifically dubious, and unapologetically corny as director Brad Peyton's orgy of CGI devastation is, its popcorn prophecy of the inevitable is a blast of giddy, disposable fun".[76] Mick LaSalle wrote in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Some movies are easy to mock, but hard to resist. This is one of them".[77]
The American Geosciences Institute's Earth Magazine called the film "dreadful" and criticized it for "perpetuat[ing] geologic absurdities", also pointing out that "despite the notoriety of the San Andreas Fault, it is not the greatest seismic threat to the Bay Area", with the nearby Hayward Fault having the potential to cause immense damage to bridges, roads, utilities and communications with a smaller magnitude quake due to its proximity to areas of dense urban population. While a full rupture along the Cascadia Subduction Zone would be the worst disaster of US history,[78] a rupture along the Hayward fault would affect a much smaller area where the impact on the urban infrastructure could be mitigated by retrofitting, enforcement of seismic building codes and other preparedness measures.[79]
Accolades
At the 2015 Teen Choice Awards, San Andreas was nominated for Choice Movie: Action. Daddario and Johnson received a nomination for Choice Movie Actress: Action and Choice Summer Movie Star: Male, respectively.[80] It garnered nominations for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature, Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature (earned two), and Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture at the 14th Visual Effects Society Awards.[81] Johnson was nominated for Best Action Performance and Best Hero at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards.[82]
