OPENINGS: THOR: THE DARK WORLD (Disney) held essentially even on Saturday, an excellent result for a franchise movie, especially where a chunk of its “Friday” number had come from Thursday night screenings. (In comparison, Iron Man 3 dropped 10% on its second day of release.) Presumably because of that strong Saturday hold, Disney is claiming a low 28% drop for Sunday, which may or may not hold up for its $86.1M weekend estimate. But even if that number drops $1-2M, it’s still a highly successful launch. In addition, Dark World took in another $94M overseas for the weekend (with Japan and Italy among the territories still to open), giving it $241M outside the US–already almost equal to the first Thor‘s $268.3M overseas total. Dark World looks like a good bet to top $600M worldwide, unless the arrival of the Hunger Games sequel in 2 weeks cuts its run short.
In its expansion to 1144 theatres, 12 YEARS A SLAVE (Fox Searchlight) was solid at $6.6M, a $5800 per-theatre average. Searchlight reportedly plans to continue expanding the run to at least 1300 locations next weekend, which should keep the weekend total relatively steady while shrinking the per-screen average. It’s the same strategy the studio used on Enough Said, although that film is now running out of steam at $16M.
It’s anyone’s guess how ABOUT TIME (Universal) can justify a weekend estimate of $5.2M that relies on an incredibly low Sunday drop of 7%, by far the lowest of any film this weekend. (It had a 27% Saturday bump, but the Saturday bump for 12 Years was 55%, and that film is reporting a 35% drop on Sunday.) If that somehow holds up in final numbers tomorrow, it would have to be considered a fairly successful debut, with a $4300 per-theatre average. It seems more likely that the weekend total will drop below $5M tomorrow.
HOLDOVERS: Even if ENDER’S GAME (Summit/Lionsgate) had been a hit, it would have faced a major challenge from Thor in its second weekend. With the tepid start Ender’s ended up having, this weekend was going to be ugly, and Ender‘s dropped 62% to $10.3M. Its fortunes now depend entirely on success overseas, where its run has barely started.
FREE BIRDS (Relativity) and LAST VEGAS (CBS) held on much more successfully, down respectively 29% to $11.2M and 32% to $11.1M, and both headed for $50M+ in the US. In its third weekend, BAD GRANDPA (Paramount) fell 43% to $11.3M (obviously the order of these three titles, so closely packed together, may shift with final numbers tomorrow), at a $78.7M total so far and $100M in its sights.
Among longer runs, GRAVITY (Warners) and CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Sony) are still the champs. Gravity was down 35% to $8.4M ($231M in the US and $241M overseas, with some territories still to open), and Phillips slipped 31% to $5.8M ($91M in the US and $55M overseas so far).
LIMITED RELEASE: THE BOOK THIEF (20th) had an OK opening with a $27K average at 4 NY/LA theatres. Most of the action this weekend, though, came from expansions. ALL IS LOST (Lionsgate/Relativity) widened to 401 theatres with an unexciting $3K average. DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (Focus/Universal) held well in its move to 35 theatres, averaging $18K. BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (IFC) wasn’t as strong as it almost doubled its run to 71 theatres with a $3600 average. THE ARMSTRONG LIE (Sony Pictures Classics) didn’t have much with a $6200 average in its debut at 5 theatres.
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