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Magic Mike XXL narrowly outstripped “Terminator Genisys” at the holiday weekend box office.

Channing Tatum and his fellow strippers brought in $9,3 million on their opening day (Wednesday last week), according to Warner Brothers.

Paramount Pictures said on Thursday that its reboot of the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi franchise opened slightly behind at $8,9 million.

The two films were vying to unseat “Jurassic World” over the US Independence Day weekend; with the holiday falling on a Saturday, studios weren’t getting the usual long-weekend boost.

Both “Magic Mike” and “Terminator” opened early to rope in more moviegoers – their opening day tallies in fact include around $2 million in last Tuesday night showings.

The early figures suggest a very close race for the box-office lead. But it also meant a July Fourth weekend lacking major fireworks at the multiplex. Both films were expected to make in the neighborhood of $40 million from last Wednesday through Sunday.

This would have been much better news for XXL, which was made for only about $15 million.

“Genisys” on the other hand, which stars “Game of Thrones”’ Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, was made for about $155 million and appears headed for overall disappointment.

Critics have slammed the fifth instalment in the franchise, which returns Schwarzenegger to his most famous role after his absence in 2009’s “Terminator Salvation”, in which a computer generated younger version of his T-800 briefly appeared.

Nevertheless, at its current rate, “Genisys” won’t come close to matching the five-day opening of $65,3 million for “Salvation”, which starred Christian Bale as John Connor

The two new wide releases were set to struggle to surpass the strong holdovers of “Jurassic World” and Pixar’s “Inside Out” over the weekend which were still pulling in big audiences weeks after their releases.

Still, the four movies should at least mean a big improvement over last year’s July Fourth. Last summer’s Independence Day weekend, featuring Melissa McCarthy’s Tammy and the sci-fi adventure “Earth to Echo”, was Hollywood’s worst in decades. – dailymail.