OPENINGS: ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (TriStar/Sony) continued its frontloaded box office swoon, with a 28% Sunday drop and probably another 25% today (the Monday number will likely be 75% below what the movie earned on opening day). Despite more than doubling the Friday box office of The Butler, it will end up losing the 4-day weekend to the holdover, a fitting anticlimax to Sony’s dreadful summer of After Earth, White House Down, The Smurfs 2, Elysium, and The Mortal Instruments.
INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED (Lionsgate/Televisa) didn’t slow its terrific pace, up 12% on Sunday and aiming at a $10M 4-day weekend at only 347 theatres. That sound you hear is every other studio getting into the low-budget Spanish-langauge business.
GETAWAY (Warners) and CLOSED CIRCUIT (Focus/Universal) are already done, with 4-day weekends of $5.5M and $3M. Neither may even reach double digits, and although Closed Circuit had the smaller marketing budget of the pair, it’s academic now. THE GRANDMASTER (Weinstein) failed to demonstrate any appeal outside art-houses with $3.1M in semi-wide release.
HOLDOVERS: THE BUTLER (Weinstein) romped to its third straight weekend victory (there won’t be a 4th, with Riddick opening on Friday), up 10% for the 4-day weekend to $20M and a total so far of $79.3M. WE’RE THE MILLERS (Warners) at $15.9M, PLANES (Disney) at $10.7M and ELYSIUM (TriStar/Sony) at $8.3M also held well, although that trio is in declining order of overall success. After a $5.3M weekend, BLUE JASMINE (Sony Pictures Classics) is at $21.7M, giving Woody Allen the top indie film of 2013 (unless The Butler is considered “indie”). Last weekend’s openings THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES (Screen Gems/Sony), THE WORLD’S END (Focus/Universal) and YOU’RE NEXT (Lionsgate) had no traction.
LIMITED RELEASE: Most indie distributors didn’t report Monday estimates. With the 4th day included, IN A WORLD… (Roadside) and AUSTENLAND (Sony Pictures Classics) had OK results, respectively a $4600 per-theatre average at 92 and $5K at 52. (By way of comparison, Blue Jasmine had a $4500 average at 1179.)
About the Author
