No one expected 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (Warners/Legendary) to equal the giant start of its predecessor, after 7 years and with most of the cast gone–and it won’t. But based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the spin-off is launching well, with a $17M Friday (which includes $3.3M from Thursday night) that should mean a $40M+ weekend. (In comparison, the original 300 had a $28.1M opening day and $70.9M weekend.) It remains to be seen how frontloaded the new epic will be, but this could set it up for $125M+ in the US, and probably much better overseas.
MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN (DreamWorks Animation/20th) had a moderate $8M opening day, less than half the $17.1M that The Lego Movie had just a month ago, and also below the $11.6M start for last March’s DreamWorks Animation effort The Croods. Peabody should be headed to a $30M weekend, an OK start.
Wes Anderson’s THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Fox Searchlight) is only in 4 NY/LA theatres, and it’s reporting a phenomenal $54K per-theatre average for Friday alone, which could mean a $165K weekend average. That would be the all-time highest opening average for a non-animated film that didn’t (a la Kevin Smith’s Red State) include a live stage component, putting it ahead of the $147K average for The Master, which started with a $48K opening day average at 5 theatres.
Holdovers will all look better than they usually would on a weekend-to-weekend basis, because of last week’s slow Oscar Sunday. NON-STOP (Universal) dropped a bit over 50% from last Friday to $4.9M, for a likely $17M+ weekend. The more frontloaded SON OF GOD (20th) dropped a much heavier 70% Friday-to-Friday, down to $2.8M and a weekend that might not hit $10M, depending on its Sunday performance.
Even with Peabody‘s arrival, THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners) dropped less than 50% to $2.4M on Friday, with another $12M in store for the weekend. With 2 Oscars in its pocket, FROZEN (Disney) barely dropped from last Friday, down about 13% to $625K, with a $3M weekend ahead that will put it in shouting distance of a $400M US total.
Thinking of Oscars, 12 YEARS A SLAVE (Fox Searchlight) expanded to 1065 theatres even though it’s also available on homevideo, and after a $625K Friday, it should have a $2M+ weekend, as those who’ve postponed seeing it for months on a big screen finally catch up.
About the Author
