Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #14 of 2014 looks like $159 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up 40% from the four-year average for this weekend. All credit goes to the second Captain America, as Disney has succesfully transformed April into the new May on the evolving movie release calendar.
Opening at 3,938 theaters Friday, Captain America: The Winter Solider from Disney grossed $37.0 million through Friday, putting the film on track for a $94.0 million opening weekend (slightly above our $92.5 million ShowbuzzDaily forecast). The film is pacing toward a three-day average of $23,900 per theater for the weekend (4.5 times the $5,333 opening weekend average for all wide-release films the last two years). Critical sentiment is quite strong (88% positive overall and 79% positive with top critics). Captain America 2 is headed for $208 million total domestic, up from $176.7 million domestic for Captain America: The First Avenger (released by Paramount on July 22, 2011).
Noah is running behind our projected pace for the weekend and its final domestic projection has been downgraded, while Divergent and God’s Not Dead continue to run ahead of our weekend forecast and each film’s total domestic projection has been upgraded.
| Weekend 14: April 4-6, 2014 | ($ millions) | |||||
| Pre-Wknd Showbuzz Forecast | Early Weekend Estimate | Actual Friday Gross | Showbuzz Domestic Final Proj. | |||
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier | Dis | [92.5] | 94.0 | 37.0 | 208 | |
| Noah | Par | [19.4] | 16.5 | 4.9 | 110 | |
| Divergent | LG/Sum | [12.4] | 13.2 | 4.2 | 146 | |
| God’s Not Dead | Free | [6.9] | 8.0 | 2.2 | 51 | |
| Grand Budapest Hotel | FoxS | [6.1] | 6.4 | 1.8 | 55 | |
| Muppets Most Wanted | Dis | [6.5] | 6.3 | 1.5 | 60 | |
| Mr Peabody & Sherman | Fox/DWA | [5.6] | 5.2 | 1.3 | 118 | |
| Non-Stop | Uni | [2.2] | 1.9 | .56 | 93 | |
| Need for Speed | Uni | [2.3] | 1.8 | .53 | 43 | |
| Sabotage | OpenR | [2.0] | 1.8 | — | 9 | |
| 300: Rise of an Empire | WB | [2.0] | — | .42 | 112 | |
| Cesar Chavez | LG/Sum | [2.0] | — | — | 9 | |
Note: The table above summarizes an early look at the weekend. The first column is a reminder of each film’s ShowBuzzDaily Forecast for the weekend (in brackets). The second column, on which the films are sorted, displays the new weekend projection for each film, based on the Friday numbers (the third column). The final column is a preliminary estimate of the ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Total number for the film’s total run in North America. A “++” indicates the Domestic number has been upgraded; a “–” indicates a downgrade.
Total Box Office Volume
The Top 12 Films this weekend are looking like $159 million total Friday-Sunday, up 40% from the four-year average for the comparable weekend and up 25% from the same weekend last year.
| WEEKEND 14 | ($ millions) | ||
| Weekend Volume: Top 12 Films | Top Movies Opening Each Weekend (Fri-Sun only) | ||
| 2014 | $159 | Captain America: The Winter Soldier $94 | |
| 2013 | $127 | Evil Dead $25.8, Jurassic Park 3D $18.6 | |
| 2012 | $117 | American Reunion $21.5, Titanic 3D $17.3 | |
| 2011 | $103 | Hanna $12.4, Arthur $12.2, Soul Surfer $10.6, Your Highness $9.4 | |
| 2010 | $119 | Date Night $25.2 | |
| Avg 2010-13 | $113 | ||
Check back tomorrow for more complete Weekend Studio Estimates based on Saturday’s actual box office, as well as the International Box Office report.
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