The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
This weekend saw the release of two new movies, both with fairly big name stars, although neither of them stood much of a chance against Walt Disney Pictures’ Oz The Great and Powerful, which held up decently in its second weekend with an estimated $42.2 million, down just 47% from its opening weekend which was enough to keep it at first place at the box office with relative ease. And just like that, the movie, directed by Sam Raimi and starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz, became the highest-grossing movie of 2013 with $145 million grossed domestically. It held well in its 308 domestic IMAX screens, adding another $4 million to its IMAX total. Disney’s movie did even better internationally in its second weekend, bringing in $46.6 million ($2 million from IMAX venues) to bring its international total to $136.8 million and its worldwide cume to $281.8 million after just ten days.
Despite opening in over 600 fewer theaters, Halle Berry’s thriller The Call (TriStar Pictures), co-starring Abigail Breslin, did significantly better than the Vegas magic comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (New Line/WB), starring Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Jim Carrey, Olivia Wilde and Alan Arkin. The high concept thriller brought in an estimated $17.1 million over the weekend in 2,507 locations, averaging roughly $6,800 per site, while the star-studded magician comedy tanked with just $10.3 million in over 3,100 theaters, a dismal per-site average of $3,259 per location. It’s the poorest showing for one of Carell’s movies to open in over 2,000 theaters since the breakout success of The 40-Year-Old Virgin in 2005. It also continues Warner Bros.’ run of disappointments and outright bombs for the year with only one of their releases opening over $20 million this year.
That movie was Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Slayer (Warner Bros.), which dropped down to fourth place with a better hold than its previous week, adding $6.2 million to its three week total of $53.9 million.
Seth Gordon’s hit comedy Identity Thief (Universal), starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, took fifth place with $4.5 million, bringing its running box office total to $123.7 million to date, still good for what is now the second-highest grossing movie of the year. It also became Gordon’s biggest comedy hit to date, surpassing the grosses of his previous comedies Four Christmases and Horrible Bosses.
Dwayne Johnson’s real-life action thriller Snitch (Summit) had another great hold in its fourth weekend, down just 31% and one spot from the previous weekend to take sixth place with $3.5 million over the weekend and $37.3 million total.
Of the rest of the movies in the Top 10, all of which grossed less than $3 million, the R-rated party comedy 21 and Over (Relativity Media) did the best with $2.6 million to bring its total to $22 million.
Meanwhile, the Colin Farrell crime thriller Dead Man Down (Film District)–which like The Call was co-produced by WWE Films–took the biggest plunge of the week, dropping 62% from its fourth place opening to fall out of the Top 10 in its second week.
The Top 10 grossed an estimated $94.3 million, which is up slightly-less than 1%–from the same weekend last year when the Jonah Hill-Channing Tatum R-rated undercover cop comedy 21 Jump Street (Sony) won the weekend with $36.3 million.
Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers (A24), starring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and James Franco, opened big in just three theaters in New York and Los Angeles, grossing an estimated $270 thousand or $90,000 per site, a great lead-in for its nationwide expansion next Friday. Taking full advantage of the number of college students currently on spring break–presumably many former Disney Channel watchers–it was quite a coup for new distributor A24, which also finally released Sally Potter’s Ginger & Rosa, starring Elle Fanning and Alice Englert, on Friday into the same number of theaters to lesser effect. The British coming-of-age drama brought in just $45,000.
The Studio Ghibli animated film From Up on Poppy Hill (GKIDS) also opened in two theaters in New York on Friday where it brought in $55,000.
Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.
