Category: Weekend box office

Fast Five off to fast start

If Friday’s box office results are any indication, and they usually are, Fast Five, the fifth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise, is off to a very fast start. How fast? Try fast enough for producers to keep Lipofuze on hand of the starting-to-show-some-age cast.

On Friday, Fast Five drew an impressive $33.2 million in its first 24 hours of release and seems set to draw close to $100 million this weekend. That would be impressive. Nothing else looked poised to draw more than $10 million this weekend, including the box office champ of the past two weeks, Rio.

It’ll be interesting to see how the weekend finishes for Fast Five after such a g

Rio nearly doubles Scream 4

Often referred to as “the Angry Birds movie,” Rio proved almost twice as popular as the Wes Craven-Kevin Williamson revival of the Scream franchise. With $39.2 million on its opening weekend domestically, and a whopping $144.3 million in global box office outside the US, Rio netted a nifty $183.5 million in its debut, over twice as much as the film’s $90 million budget.

That’s enough to classify the film as crazy-popular.

Meanwhile Scream 4 did well, but underperformed, failing to crack even $20 million in its opening weekend. The film’s $18.6 million was behind pace, despite an all-star cast, but with $17.9 million in worldwide box office they’re close to making back the film’s $40 million investment, so it’s hardly a failure, just a disappointment. And hopefully it’ll help original franchise stars like Cortney Cox, David Arquette and Neve Campbell postpone their Medicare part D plans just a little bit longer.

The Easter-themed Hop held onto third place and was the only other film to break $10 million on the weekend. Everything else trailed badly. Things won’t necessarily perk up this coming weekend, though; the only films coming out are the dreary-sounding drama, Water for Elephants, and the formulaic and predictable Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family.

Hop hops ahead of new competition

Hop is the once and future box office champion and a flick off which several unique baby gifts can likely be spun. Last weekend’s top draw is on top of the box office once again, as Hop drew $21.6 million in its second weekend of release. While business dropped for the title over 40 percent, it still drew nearly twice as many ticket-buyers as anything else on display.

Coming in second place, at least at the moment, is the remake of Arthur, which drew $12.6 million, about one third lower than even the most modest expectations. In fact, action-suspense flick Hanna drew in a healthy $12.3 million for third place, and it’s still not impossible that in the final tally, Hanna could inch ahead of Arthur.

Surfing feel-good flick Soul Surfer wasn’t too far behind in fourth place, with a respectable $11.1 million, given the low budget and skimpy promotion that film received. Nothing else topped $10 million. That includes ultra-cheap thriller Insidious ($9.7 million/$27 million to date/$1.5 million budget) in fifth place and the extremely disappointing performance of Your Highness ($9.5 million debut/$49.9 million budget).

Source Code managed just over $9 million to secure seventh place, and after that receipts really fell off. Source Code should make its money back, but won’t post big profits as it fell precipitously in its second week of release.

Things won’t get any less competitive ahead; expected to open big is the “Angry Birds” movie, RIO. Also, Wes Craven debuts Scream 4, a modern update of the decade-old franchise. After that, new releases look dismal until May.

Hop hits, Source Code stale?

The Easter-themed animated movie Hop dominated box office returns this weekend. The movie drew in $38.1 million in domestic receipts, earning back nearly two-thirds of its $63 million budget in the first three days. Thanks to an in-control budget, Hop seems set to balance its books for the studio.

A similar fate seems certain for the SF thriller Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhall. The Prince of Persia star performs well in the critically-acclaimed drama, but the film itself was a very distant second to Hop, drawing in a mere $15 million in its opening nod. Fortunately, only $32 million went into making the flick, so while the result may be disappointing, it avoided reaching bomb status.

Only a bit behind Source Code is the horror film Insidious, from the producers of the Paranormal Activity franchise. The film’s biggest stars are Rose Byrne and Barbara Hershey, so while no official production budget has been released, the movie’s $13.4 million performance may be enough to render it a success.

In fourth place, Rodrick continued to rule as Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 won its way to another $10 million weekend. Nothing else came close and there was a conspicuous lack of films centered on a Maritime Lawyer in the top five. Who knows what next weekend will bring?

Wimpy Kid 2 bullies Sucker Punch

The Man of Steel may have cause to worry; his newly christened relaunch director, Zack Snyder, just got beat up (at the box office) by a wimpy kid.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules scored a major upset last weekend as the family-friendly, kid-lit flick drew $23.7 million, a healthy distance above its $21 million budget. It was a result no one expected, even though the series has clearly clicked with the pre-teen set it was aimed at. The kids-flick sequel limped into box office with barely any promotion until the week of release, but made a big impact nevertheless, earning them all a round of Brownie Pops, no doubt.

By comparison, Snyder’s Sucker Punch boasted a production budget in excess of $80 million and had been the subject of a vast pre-release advertising and publicity campaign; yet on opening weekend, the flick couldn’t even top $20 million, drawing only $19 million to US theaters. Even with foreign ticket sales factored in, Sucker Punch drew only $28 million, less than half its budget, generally considered the first indication of box office disappointment, if not an outright bomb.

Last weekend’s champ, Limitless, added $15 million to its take for third place, while the legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer added $10.7 million to secure fourth place. Behind those front four, no other movie broke the $10 million barrier.

The coming weekend features a similar showdown. The adult SF thriller Source Code, featuring Jake Gyllenhall and a hefty budget, will face off against the Easter-themed animated children’s flick, Hop. The horror flick, Insidious, is also arriving.

Should prove interesting.

Rango looks to win weekend by a margin

Turns out Johnny Depp can beat Matt Damon, even if only Depp’s voice shows up to play.

That seems to be the message of this week’s box office results as the Johnny Depp-headlined animated film Rango has come out of nowhere to post what looks to be a weekend total at or over the $30 million mark, after posting an impressive $9.7 million on Friday alone. At that pace, the film should win the weekend handily. And with a $135 million budget to earn back, it needed that kind of liftoff.

By contrast, Matt Damon’s thriller, The Adjustment Bureau, trailed by a distance; the movie posted under $7 million on Friday and looks to enjoy a box office debut just north of $20 million. No word on the budget, but that’s got to be disappointing.

Worse off is Beastly, a modern day retelling of Beauty and the Beast, which posted a $3.5 million Friday and seems destined to finish just over $10 million on the weekend. The young-adult paranormal romance movie had a modest budget at $17 million, so it should do OK, but the fact that the biggest star in the film is How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris means the film’s lack of star-power could limit the results.

Don’t look for anything else to even reach $10. No number of industrial pumps can inflate these Friday results to more respectable levels. However, at least all three new movies look solid to take the top three spots at the box office, even if by default.

Gnomeo wins in down week

Currently in its third week of release, animated children’s flick Gnomeo and Juliet took top box office honors, beating out raunchy new comedy release, Hall Pass, which underperformed severely. Gnomeo added $14.2 million to its take, bringing its totals to $75 million domestically and $15.8 million overseas for a grand total of just under $91 million to date.

Meanwhile, Hall Pass is the new Farralley Brothers gross-out comedy starring Jason Sudekis and Owen Wilson. While the movie landed in second place with $13.4 million, the flick, which cost $36 million to make – a relatively modest sum by Hollywood standards – sorely underperformed even modest expectations.

Hall Pass, however, did fare far better than this weekend’s other new release, which just flat-out flopped. The Nicholas Cage action flick, promoted as being shot fully in 3D, packed almost no punch at all with audiences. The film came in ninth place with a pathetic $5.1 million total, despite opening on well over 2,100 screens. Jokes floating around Tinseltown now involve Cage not being able to “open” an effort to sell school playground equipment … for free.

Unknown came in third with $12.4 million and has drawn enough to give investors a nearly 50 percent return on their money in its first two weeks. Just Go With It was fourth with $11.1 million and has nearly made its $80 million production budget back. I Am Number Four rounded out the top five with $11 million even and needs another $23 million to make its $60 million budget back.

Added into the mix for this coming weekend, the first March box office weekend, is Rango, featuring the voice work of Johnny Depp. It’s opening on a huge number of screens and should have no problem taking the weekend, despite a modest ad campaign so far. Then there’s the Matt Damon thriller, The Adjustment Bureau, which should also make some noise.

Playing the dark horse role is the Topher Grace-produced comedy, Take Me Home Tonight, which seems to be a mixture of Hall Pass and 80s nostaglia, but hopefully with more heart than Hall Pass. It will need a healthy per-screen average to do well again Rango and The Adjustment Bureau, however.

Unknown outdistances Number Four

With a final weekend tally of $21.7 million, Liam Neeson’s thriller Unknown outdistanced the Spielberg-produced teen action flick I Am Number Four, which ended the weekend at $19.5 million, just ahead of Gnomeo and Juliet, which drew $19.4 million in its second weekend. And Just Go With It fell to four place with $18.2 million, well ahead of a quick-fade by Justin “Leave It To” Beiber, whose 3D film took sixth place at $13.6 million, behind Martin Lawrence’s Big Mommas at fifth place with $17 million.

Nothing else reached $10 million or more.

Unknown’s win might be weak, but the nearly $22 million take makes it more likely to break a profit against its $30 million budget. By comparison, I Am Number Four could lose big over time, since it cost $60 million to make against its $19.5 million bow. Wherever producers plant their garden flags, it’s more likely to be with Liam Neeson that with the next I Am Number Four sequel.

New releases for Friday, February 25

It’s going to be a surer bet to buy gold online than to attempt to predict how next week’s releases are going to mix up the box office race.

Only two major releases are set to join the fray. The Farrally Brothers return with Hall Pass, starring Owen Wilson and SNL alumn Jason Sudekis. The flick has the widest release of the weekend, but Farrally Brothers films are notoriously hit-and-miss.

The other new release is the 3D action flick, Drive Angry, starring the perennial Nicholas Cage, whose movies have been underperforming as of late. Will this one do likewise? Only time will tell.

Unknown, I Am Number Four battle it out

Based on Friday’s results alone, the brand-new releases will be battling it out this weekend for box office dominance like unpopular relatives over the last available baptism invitations. Those films are the Liam Neeson thriller Unknown and the YA sci-fi thriller I Am Number Four.

On Friday, the Neeson thriller had a slight edge, drawing $6.7 million compared to $6.2 million for I Am Number Four. That distance could be made up on Saturday and Sunday receipts when more young people are likely to populate movie theater seats.

Just Go With It looks like it could stay ahead of the newcomer movie, Martin Lawrence’s Big Momma’s Like Father, Like Son. Either way, it’s an interesting race this weekend so far. Personally, my wife and I attended I Am Number Four and loved it on Saturday evening and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Another big weekend of releases

Three major releases are hitting US theaters this weekend, two of which look like they might do OK.

First up is the sci-fi/superhero thriller I Am Number Four, which seems to be generating a lot of pre-release buzz and is boasting the biggest number of screens this weekend of any new release.

Close behind is the Liam Neeson suspense-thriller, Unknown, which seems an attempt to take advantage of the same audience that went gaga over Neeson’s last entry in that genre, Taken. However, without the same sort of gripping preview or premise, it’s hard to tell if Unknown will do as well.

Then there’s Big Mama’s Like Father, Like Son, the latest Martin Lawrence comedy, which could either dominate or bomb. Tough call; we’ll have to wait and see.

One would have better luck finding a cheap car insurance quote than a sure-bet box office winner this weekend.

Sandler edges Beiber

It was a huge comeback week on Valentine’s Day weekend for the US box office as receipts rose nearly 84 percent. Sitting atop the heap when the dust settled and the desktops stopped crunching the numbers was Valentine’s Day vet Adam Sandler and his rom-com, Just Go With It. Sandler’s pic netted a final tally of $30.5 million in its opening bow.

Meanwhile, teen heartthrob Justin Beiber proved stiff competition for Sandler, leading at points over the weekend but settling a mere $1 million behind Sandler when it was all over, at $29.5 million. Of course, leave it to Beiber to get the last laugh: his 3D flick only cost $13 million to make, so he’s already in the green; Sandler’s film is less likely to have achieved that just yet.

Animated family comedy Gnomeo and Juliet also did well, raking in $25.3 million, while The Eagle finished a distant fourth place with a mere $8.6 million, just ahead of fifth-place thriller, The Roommate, which netted $8.1 in its second week of release. Nothing else was close.