OPENINGS: 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (Warners/Legendary) did well in late-night shows, raising its Friday estimate to $17.7M, which may bring its opening weekend to $43M or more. That’s still not in a league with the original 300 and its $28.9M/70.1M start (especially since the 2007 movie didn’t have 3D ticket prices or Thursday evening performances), but it’s strong nevertheless. Empire cost around $225M with worldwide marketing costs included, and its overseas revenue will determine whether it’s a breakeven proposition or a hit. The film opened widely around the world on Friday, and we’ll have details about its international results tomorrow.
MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN (DreamWorks Animation/20th) had a moderate launch at $8M on Friday, less than half of the $17.1M for The Lego Movie last month, and also below the $11.6M for The Croods, which was DreamWorks Animation’s offering last March. Croods ended up being a hit because it more than doubled its US results overseas, but Peabody is also off to a mild start internationally, with $40M to date in some major markets including the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Mexico. With a $275M cost (including marketing), it has still has quite a bit of hill to climb.
HOLDOVERS: NON-STOP (Universal) dropped 53% from last Friday to $4.7M, although that will moderate over the weekend because Sunday will be comparatively strong compared to last week’s Oscar Sunday. It’s still pacing to be the highest of Liam Neeson’s non-Taken action movies. SON OF GOD (20th) was extremely frontloaded, and collapsed by 72% from last Friday to $2.7M. Of course, an eventual $60M in the US will still be quite good for a film that had very low costs (mostly being a re-edit of the TV miniseries The Bible) and should perform disproportionately well in homevideo.
THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners) is still holding very impressively, down 40% from last Friday to $2.7M despite the competing arrival of Mr. Peabody, with a US total of nearly $225M likely by Sundamy and a clear path to $250M. FROZEN (Disney) got an Oscar boost on top of its already-amazing consistency, and dropped just 12% from last Friday to $634K, with $400M in the US dead ahead.
12 YEARS A SLAVE (Fos Searchlight) more than doubled its theatre count following its Best Picture win, and will triple last weekend’s total to $2M, although with the film already available on homevideo, it still may not get beyond a $55M US total. (In comparison, Philomena, which won no Oscars, should reach $40M at the US box office.)
LIMITED RELEASE: Wes Anderson’s THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Fox Searchlight) is headed toward a history-making opening, with a $65K per-theatre average on Friday alone at its 4 NY/LA theatres. It should certainly break the non-special event record set by The Master, which had a $147K weekend average at 5, and might even reach a $200K average for the weekend. Of course, opening averages at such a small number of theatres don’t necessarily mean much in the bigger picture, as The Master only ended up with $16.4M in the US. However, Budapest is a considerably more accessible film than Master, and has a chance of reaching a wider audience. (Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom started with a 130K average at 4, and ended up with $45.5M in the US.) Meanwhile, THE FACE OF LOVE (IFC) might reach an $8K average at 3 for the weekend, but even that’s somewhat misleading, since it’s been featuring celebrity Q&As.
NEXT WEEKEND: NEED FOR SPEED (DreamWorks/Disney) may be one of DreamWorks’ last releases as a semi-independent entity if recent stories are true (studio president Stacey Snider might be going to 20th, which is reportedly assuaging uber-boss Steven Spielberg with, among other things, remake rights to West Side Story). Tyler Perry’s latest, THE SINGLE MOMS CLUB (Lionsgate) also arrives. Jason Bateman’s directing debut BAD WORDS (Focus/Universal), a sensation at the Toronto Film Festival, will enter limited release.
About the Author
