>
Another win for Katniss Everdeen.
THE HUNGER GAMES: In just its 3rd weekend of release, and with plenty left in the tank, THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) hit $302.8M, and has already outgrossed every picture in the Twilight series. (Only 5 movies have gotten to $300M faster.) By this time next week, it will also have beaten all the Harry Potters except the last of that series. Hunger‘s $33.5M weekend was the 7th highest 3rd weekend ever, and its 43% drop from last week (admittedly helped a bit by the Good Friday holiday) was on pace with The Dark Knight and ahead of Alice In Wonderland at this point in their runs. In addition, considering the very weak competition scheduled for next weekend (Cabin In the Woods, The 3 Stooges and Lockout), it has a real chance of winning its 4th weekend in a row. Overseas, Hunger took in another $25.5M, for a $157.1M total that still lags behind its US success. However, Hunger is clearly headed for an international total higher than the original Twilight‘s $200M.
OPENINGS: AMERICAN REUNION (Universal) arrived with an OK $21.5M, plus another $19.3M overseas. It was reasonably budgeted at $50M and didn’t have an over-the-top marketing campaign, so it should be a comfortable success, although seemingly not enough of one to keep the series going in theatres. TITANIC 3D (Paramount/20th), which had opened on Wednesday, brought in $17.4M in the US but $35.5M overseas, similar to the proportions of its original total gross, and making the 3D re-release quite worthwhile for the studios.
HOLDOVERS: WRATH OF THE TITANS (Warners) fell by a swift 55% and won’t get much higher than $90M in the US. As with its predecessor Clash, it’s doing much better overseas, with $43M this weekend and a total of $152.5M, but it’s still headed for a worldwide total down around 35% from Clash‘s $493M. MIRROR MIRROR (Relativity) had a good hold, down only around 39%, which still brings it to only around $60M at the US boxoffice, considerably less than its budget (even considering foreign presales) plus marketing. 21 JUMP STREET (Sony), THE LORAX (Universal) and SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN (CBS) continued to hold well, JOHN CARTER (Disney) continued to plummet, and the anti-abortion propaganda piece OCTOBER BABY (Goldwyn), which has unaccountably gotten attention from mainstream press (including the NY Times) for its “success,” dropped by 53% to a lousy $1100 per-theatre average and won’t reach $5M at the boxoffice.
LIMITED RELEASE: DAMSELS IN DISTRESS (Sony Classics) opened well with a $16K average at 4 NY/LA theatres, while WE HAVE A POPE (IFC) was less impressive with a $10.5K average at 3. BULLY (Weinstein Company) continued to ride its publicity with a $12.5K average at 6. THE RAID: REDEMPTION (Sony Classics) widened to 176 theatres with a decent $3200 average.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
About the Author
