Weekend Box Office (February 22 - 24, 2013)
** Oscar Winners **
THIS WEEKEND With Hollywood busy preparing for the Academy Awards, studios dumped out lame new releases which not surprisingly led to a soft session at North American multiplexes allowing former chart-topper Identity Thief to reclaim the number one spot. Universal's hit comedy declined by a reasonable 41% from the Friday-to-Sunday portion of last weekend's Presidents' Day frame and grossed $14M, according to final studio figures, leading all films. After 17 days, the Melissa McCarthy-Jason Bateman pic has now collected $93.6M and will hit the $100M mark next weekend - a big achievement for an original R-rated comedy.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson got his busy 2013 started with a decent opening for his action offering Snitch which bowed in second place to $13.2M from 2,511 theaters for a good $5,244 average. The PG-13 film about a father becoming an informant in order to save his son played more to older men as studio research showed that 53% of the audience was male and 57% was over 30. Reviews were mixed and the CinemaScore grade was a mediocre B. The Rock will reappear in the top ten monthly with G.I. Joe: Retaliation opening March 29, Pain and Gain on April 26, and Fast and Furious 6 debuting May 24.
The Weinstein Co. enjoyed a solid hold for its 3D animated offering Escape From Planet Earth which slipped only 33% to $10.7M in its second weekend. With no competition at all for kids, and with many schools closed last week for winter breaks, the PG-rated comedy-adventure has banked a solid $34.8M in ten days and will continue to face no competitors over the coming week.
The critically-panned romance Safe Haven fell 51% to $10.5M taking fourth place while the action sequel A Good Day to Die Hard tumbled 59% to $10.2M in fifth. Relativity has taken in $47.9M in 11 days for its love story while Fox's more expensive franchise film has banked $52M over the same number of days. International results were strong for Bruce Willis with $35.7M from 67 markets for an overseas total of $133.1M (led by Japan's $13.3M) and a global gross of $185M - 72% from offshore audiences.
Supernatural thriller Dark Skies had a soft debut in sixth with $8.2M from 2,313 locations for a weak $3,540 average. Earning dull reviews from critics, the PG-13 fright flick was also rejected by paying consumers receiving a disappointing C grade from CinemaScore. Competition was light, but the target audience had little interest in this Weinstein Co. release.
The top grossing Best Picture contender this weekend was once again Silver Linings Playbook which eased only 8% to $5.8M upping its cume to $107.2M. That's a healthy $71.5M more than the $35.7M it had in the bank when it earned its nominations last month. Zombie romance Warm Bodies followed with $4.8M, off 46%, for a $58.2M total for Summit and Lionsgate.
Dropping 52% was teen flop Beautiful Creatures with $3.6M followed closely by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects with $3.4M, down a troubling 47%. Totals are $16.6M for Warner Bros. and $25.1M for Open Road.
Most Best Picture contenders continued to rake in last-minute ticket sales from interested movie fans before Hollywood's big night. Front-runner Argo (which won three Oscars including Best Picture) dipped 16% to $1.8M for $129.7M to date. That is an exceptional hold given that the Ben Affleck-directed film just hit multiple home entertainment platforms this past week. Life of Pi - winner of the most statues with four including Best Director - actually inched up 2% to $1.6M for $113.5M domestic and a towering $584.5M worldwide. Lincoln took in $1.5M, down just 9%, for cumes of $178.6M from North America and $245.1M worldwide. It won a pair of Academy Awards including Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.
Some nominees suffered larger drops. Zero Dark Thirty fell 26% to $2.2M giving Sony $91.5M to date while the musical Les Misérables dropped 26% to $634,825 with $146.7M thus far for Universal. Declining by 36% was Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained with $971,655 and $158.8M overall.
Sony Classics added some screens to the run of Amour which bumped up 2% to $716,186 for a total of $5.1M. Together, the nine Best Picture nominees have now grossed a stellar $942M domestically with seven of those titles surpassing $90M each. Worldwide, the nine films have been thriving this awards season collecting over $2 billion.
The top ten films grossed $84.2M which was down 22% from last year when Act of Valor climbed into the number one spot with $24.5M; and down 9% from 2011 when Hall Pass debuted in the top spot with $13.5M.
Compared to projections, Snitch and Dark Skies both opened close to my respective forecasts of $12M and $10M.
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Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Jack the Giant Slayer, 21 and Over, The Last Exorcism Part II and Phantom all open.
| # | Title | Feb 22 - 24 | Feb 15 - 17 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | Distributor |
| 1 | Identity Thief | $ 14,017,085 | $ 23,674,295 | -40.8 | 3,222 | 3 | $ 4,350 | $ 93,619,615 | Universal |
| 2 | Snitch | 13,167,607 | 2,511 | 1 | 5,244 | 13,167,607 | Lionsgate | ||
| 3 | Escape From Planet Earth | 10,682,037 | 15,891,055 | -32.8 | 3,353 | 2 | 3,186 | 34,812,699 | Weinstein Co. |
| 4 | Safe Haven | 10,454,713 | 21,401,594 | -51.1 | 3,223 | 2 | 3,244 | 47,916,356 | Relativity |
| 5 | A Good Day to Die Hard | 10,165,633 | 24,834,845 | -59.1 | 3,555 | 2 | 2,860 | 51,967,897 | Fox |
| 6 | Dark Skies | 8,189,166 | 2,313 | 1 | 3,540 | 8,189,166 | Weinstein Co. | ||
| 7 | Silver Linings Playbook | 5,750,866 | 6,241,902 | -7.9 | 2,012 | 15 | 2,858 | 107,176,012 | Weinstein Co. |
| 8 | Warm Bodies | 4,825,388 | 8,865,186 | -45.6 | 2,644 | 4 | 1,825 | 58,243,441 | Summit |
| 9 | Beautiful Creatures | 3,608,333 | 7,582,595 | -52.4 | 2,950 | 2 | 1,223 | 16,570,598 | Warner Bros. |
| 10 | Side Effects | 3,357,039 | 6,272,152 | -46.5 | 2,070 | 3 | 1,622 | 25,099,555 | Open Road |
| 11 | Zero Dark Thirty | 2,230,084 | 2,995,899 | -25.6 | 1,197 | 10 | 1,863 | 91,539,075 | Sony |
| 12 | Argo | 1,827,165 | 2,182,269 | -16.3 | 802 | 20 | 2,278 | 129,653,502 | Warner Bros. |
| 13 | Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters | 1,684,532 | 3,513,410 | -52.1 | 1,425 | 5 | 1,182 | 52,945,086 | Paramount |
| 14 | Life of Pi | 1,605,366 | 1,570,368 | 2.2 | 572 | 14 | 2,807 | 113,525,126 | Fox |
| 15 | Lincoln | 1,481,081 | 1,635,183 | -9.4 | 875 | 16 | 1,693 | 178,603,571 | Disney |
| 16 | Mama | 1,173,900 | 2,686,245 | -56.3 | 1,163 | 6 | 1,009 | 70,230,570 | Universal |
| 17 | Quartet | 1,125,886 | 1,314,097 | -14.3 | 356 | 6 | 3,163 | 8,844,950 | Weinstein Co. |
| 18 | Django Unchained | 971,655 | 1,527,281 | -36.4 | 659 | 9 | 1,474 | 158,783,430 | Weinstein Co. |
| 19 | Amour | 716,186 | 702,842 | 1.9 | 328 | 10 | 2,183 | 5,147,242 | Sony Classics |
| 20 | Wreck-It Ralph | 645,870 | 793,472 | -18.6 | 402 | 17 | 1,607 | 186,676,411 | Disney |
| Top 5 | $ 58,487,075 | $ 94,666,975 | -38.2 | ||||||
| Top 10 | 84,217,867 | 121,272,933 | -30.6 | ||||||
| Top 20 | 97,679,592 | 135,536,946 | -27.9 | ||||||
| Top 20 vs. 2012 | 97,679,592 | 126,105,468 | -22.5 |
This column is updated three times each week: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday (post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of the author.
Last Updated: February 25, 2013 at 4:20PM ET
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