OPENINGS: $17.1M for THE CALL (TriStar/Sony) is more than the movie cost to produce (although it won’t pay for the marketing), and sets the Halle Berry vehicle up to be a modest hit. However, there’s no spinning the $10.3M for THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE (Warners), which will lose much more than its $35M production budget indicates because of the marketing dollars Warners poured into it.
HOLDOVERS: The cup was half full and perhaps half empty for OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (Disney). In the US, it had a perfectly decent (although not exceptional) 47% drop to $42.2M in its second weekend. Depending on how big a hit it takes from The Croods next weekend, it should reach $230M and perhaps a bit higher. Overseas, however, it had a misleadingly strong $46.6M weekend–misleading because the 33% drop doesn’t reflect the fact that it added several important territories, including France and Taiwan. The only major territory left is China, and even if it’s a significant hit there, with $136.8M overseas to date, it’s difficult to see how Oz gets much past $300M overseas or $500-550M worldwide. And while half a billion dollars sounds like it should be enough to make anybody happy, it’s only a mild return on a an investment (including worldwide marketing) of $350M+.
Oz is, however, better off than A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (20th). That would-be blockbuster overperformed internationally, including a $15.7M China opening this weekend, and it sholuld have an overseas take of around $250M. But that can’t make up for its dismal $70M in the US, and although an eventual reboot is probably inevitable, for now the franchise is dead. (Incidentally, the China boxoffice for blockbusters is as front-loaded as ours: as an example, take Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which opened with a $56M weekend and ended up with about $165M, a very standard 2.95 multiple.)
JACK THE GIANT SLAYER (Warners) led the weekend’s longer runs, down just 37% but still headed for only $65M in the US. (it has $35M overseas but has opened in less than half the world.) IDENTITY THIEF (Universal) is still holding up beautifully, down only 29% in its 6th weekend with a total of $123.7M. DEAD MAN DOWN (FilmDistrict) and THE LAST EXORCISM PART 2 (CBS) were the only two titles to collapse, down a respective 62% and 58%.
LIMITED RELEASE: Harmony Korine’s SPRING BREAKERS (A24) had a spectacular $90K average in each of its 3 theatres (that may conceivably be more than the entire boxoffice for his previous Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy, Trash Humpers and Mr. Lonely combined). It expands to 600 more mainstream locations next week. GINGER AND ROSA (A24) had a decent start with a $15K average at 3, but UPSIDE DOWN (Millenium) is going nowhere with a $2600 average at 11. After an expansion to 94 theatres, STOKER (Fox Searchlight) had a very unpromising $2800 average. NO (Sony Pictures Classics), however, held up nicely with a $4K average after an expansion from 35 to 48 theatres. BEYOND THE HILLS (IFC) spread to 17 theatres with a $1500 average, and LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE (IFC) went to 18 theatres with a $1900 average.
About the Author
