It was a surprisingly lopsided win on Friday for NO GOOD DEED (Screen Gems/Sony), although things may tighten up a bit over the course of the weekend. According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, No Good Deed earned $8.5M on Friday, which should get it to at least $21M for the weekend, and possibly more. It’ll be interesting to see how the movie plays out over the course of the weekend, because on the one hand it’s aimed at an African-American audience that tends to be frontloaded, but on the other its stars Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson may appeal to an older audience that could provide stronger legs.
DOLPHIN TALE 2 (Warners), despite playing in 1500 more theatres than No Good Deed, got off to a slow start with $4M on Friday, 20% below the $5.1M opening day for the first Dolphin Tale 3 years ago, and one-third of No Good Deed‘s per-theatre average. Dolphin 2 should benefit from the family audience on Saturday/Sunday matinees, however, and could reach $15M for the weekend.
At only 800 theatres, THE DROP (Fox Searchlight) had a promising start with $1.35M on Friday, heading toward a $4M+ weekend. The bad news for the small-scale thriller is that it has little time to grow, with higher-profile Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington action vehicles arriving in the next 2 weeks.
The holdovers are led, once again, by GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney), with $2.1M on Friday (down 20% from last week) and a likely $8M weekend. Depending on the final Friday number, Guardians will hit $300M in the US on Friday or Saturday. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (Nickelodeon/Paramount) and LET’S BE COPS (20th) both followed with $1.2M (also down 20%) and probable $4.5-5M weekends. IF I STAY (MGM/Warners) was also holding well at $1.1 on Friday (down 30%) and a $4M weekend. Nothing else hit $1M on Friday.
About the Author
