OPENINGS: As YA franchises go, the $11.3M opening day for THE MAZE RUNNER (20th) was ahead of the $9.6M for the first Percy Jackson, which ended up with a $31.2M weekend. Maze is being pitched more to teens than to families, so it may not have quite as strong a weekend multiple as Percy, getting to $30M by tomorrow, but on the other hand it cost about 1/3 as much to produce. Percy‘s final tally was $88.8M in the US and $226.5M worldwide, and numbers like that would make Maze a considerable moneymaker.
A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (Universal) didn’t hit the Liam Neeson action movie sweet spot, with his lowest post-Taken take as an action star at $4.7M on Friday and a likely $14M weekend. The R rating didn’t help, but the bigger overall problem may have been that Neeson’s late-career hits have been more purely escapist, fantasies of seemingly ordinary man performing heroic deeds, while Walk is much darker and takes its violence more seriously. It’s also a reminder that the private eye genre has become almost totally subsumed by television, especially as TV dramas have themselves become more complex.
THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU (Warners) cost only about $20M to produce (although it arrives laden with Warners’ expensive marketing), and if it can hang around from its $3.9M Friday and likely $12M weekend through October, the way The Hundred-Foot Journey has from its $3.7M/11M start, it might be a modest success. Nevertheless, it too shows that the reason big studios rarely tread in the low-concept, ensemble cast dramedy genre anymore is because the audience just isn’t there to support it in large numbers, absent major critical support (which This Is Where didn’t have, at 44% on Rotten Tomatoes).
Kevin Smith’s TUSK (A24) got a barely-wide opening at 602 theatres, with $379K on Friday and a weekend that won’t get much above $1M. Suffice it to say that the audience for walrus-based comedy-horror is a limited one.
HOLDOVERS: Week 2 wasn’t kind to either of last weekend’s openings. NO GOOD DEED (Screen Gems/Sony) had hopes of a decent hold thanks to an older-skewing cast, but it didn’t happen, as the thriller plunged 67% from last Friday to $3M, on its way to a $9M weekend. It remains a notch below but comparable to 2009’s Obsessed, which fell 58% in its 2d weekend. An ultimate $55M US result won’t be bad for the low-budget effort. A DOLPHIN TALE 2 (Alcon/Warners) is collapsing much faster than its predecessor, down 50% from last Friday to $2.1M compared to a 32% drop for the first Dolphin on its 2d Friday. Dolphin 2 may reach $8M for the weekend, and $50M in the US, compared to $72.3M for the first Dolphin.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) is still selling tickets, down just 35% from last Friday to $1.4M and a probable $5M weekend.
Hopes of THE DROP (Fox Searchlight) being a long-simmering sleeper were crushed when the low-key thriller fell 56% from last Friday to $650K despite increasing its theatre count by nearly 50% to 1192. It was likely a fatal decision to open Drop just before A Walk Among the Tombstones, which has similar appeal and a much bigger star in the lead.
LIMITED RELEASE: The early fall indie box office continues to be slow. HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS (Relativity) may have a $15K average for the weekend at 4 NY/LA theatres, and that looks big compared to the very worthwhile TRACKS (Weinstein), which didn’t connect at all, heading for a $5K average at 4 theatres on the coasts. (One less thing for the upcoming and similarly-themed Wild to worry about.) THE SKELETON TWINS (Relativity) expanded to 49 theatres and may not have a $10K weekend average. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY (Weinstein) expanded to 136 and had no traction, on its way to an average that may not reach $1500. LOVE IS STRANGE (Sony Classics) added about 10% more theatres and could have a $2K average at 112.
NEXT WEEKEND: A pair of widely divergent arrivals, as THE BOXTROLLS (Focus/Universal) aims for quirky kids, and THE EQUALIZER (Columbia/Sony) for action-minded Denzel Washington fans.
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