Box Office Results: Neighbors Crashes the Spider-Man Party

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.

The summer of 2014 is off to a great start following last week’s showing for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, although it wasn’t able to hold the #1 spot for long, as it faced the R-rated frathouse comedy Neighbors (Universal Pictures), starring Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne and Dave Franco.

Last week, it looked like it may be a tight race for the top spot with many thinking Neighbors might pull in somewhere in the mid-to-high $30 millions or even low $40 million for the weekend, but after a huge opening day with $19.6 million, the four-quadrant buzz for the hard-R comedy helped it hold up well. It ended the weekend with an estimated $51 million, making it the biggest non-animated opening for both Rogen (his previous best being The Green Hornet with $33.5 million) and Efron, besting High School Musical 3‘s $42 million opening. Based on estimates, Neighbors also claims the third-biggest opening for an R-rated-comedy just behind Seth MacFarlane’s Ted and The Hangover Part II and putting it just ahead of Jackass 3D.

The comedy made another $34.4 million overseas (where it’s called “Bad Neighbours”) to bring its global weekend total to $85.5 million. Not bad for a movie that reportedly cost $18 million to produce.

Meanwhile, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 took a significant plunge in its second weekend, dropping 59% as it settled into second place with $37.2 million. The superhero sequel has grossed $147.9 million domestically, but it’s still doing better overseas where it took in another $69.5 million this weekend–$25.1 million of that from China alone–to push its international gross over the $400 million mark. Its $550 million global take, with $38 million of that coming from IMAX screenings, puts it in second place for the year to Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The other hit comedy currently playing in theaters, The Other Woman (20th Century Fox) starring Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann, took third place with $9.25 million, a solid hold which brings its three week total to $61.7 million.

TriStar Pictures’ spiritual hit Heaven is for Real (Sony) also continued to hold strong, taking fourth place with an estimated $7 million (down just 19% from last weekend), with an absolutely astounding take of $75 million so far.

Fifth place went to Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Disney) with $5.6 million, followed by the animated sequel Rio 2 (20th Century Fox) with $5.1 million for sixth place. The former has grossed $245 million domestically since opening in early April, while the latter’s domestic gross is $113 million after opening one week later. What’s interesting is that Captain America actually did better domestically than internationally this weekend, where it took in just $3.5 million, but its $695.6 million global gross still makes it the highest-grossing movie of the year so far.

Two more movies opened in wide release on Friday though neither had quite the confidence in marketing behind it as Universal had with Neighbors. The PG comedy Moms’ Night Out (TriStar/Sony), starring Sarah Drew and Patricia Heaton, received a moderate release into 1,044 theaters in hopes the word “Mom” in the title would bring in business. It was able to gross $4.2 million for the weekend, which is around $4,000 per theater, for seventh place, which isn’t terrible for a movie with less marketing than the other movies.

Apparently, no one cared about the return of Dorothy Gale in the animated Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return (Clarius Entertainment), featuring the voices of Lea Michele, Martin Short, Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Kelsey Grammer, Hugh Dancy, Oliver Platt and Patrick Stewart. Despite a wide release into 2,641 theaters, it tanked with just $3.7 million or $1,400 per theater, following a long line of low-budget CG animated movies released independently that just didn’t have the interest to justify such a wide release.

The Top 10 was rounded out by Shailene Woodley in Divergent (Summit) and the late Paul Walker in Brick Mansions (Relativity Media) with less than $2 million each. Divergent has scored $145 million domestically based on an $85 million budget, a good basis for the already-in-the-works sequel Insurgent.

The Top 10 movies grossed an estimated $126 million, down $24 million from the same weekend last year when Iron Man 3 and Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby dominated the Top 10 with $122 million between them with nothing else making more than $5 million over that weekend.

As far as limited releases, a number of highly-acclaimed festival favorites were given platform releases in New York and L.A. including Jon Favreau’s foodie comedy Chef (Open Road Entertainment), co-starring John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson and Oliver Platt, which took in $204 thousand in six locations for a per-theater average of $34 thousand per site, the best for the weekend. Open Road plans on expanding the film throughout the coming weeks.

Those who felt like pigging out after watching Chef might have preferred to see the health-related food doc Fed Up (RADiUS-TWC), co-produced by Katie Couric, which grossed $130 thousand in 18 theaters or $7,222 per site.

With positive reviews since its debut at the Toronto Film Festival, Gia Coppola’s directorial debut Palo Alto (Tribeca Film), based on James Franco’s book of short stories, opened in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles where it made $80.6 thousand or about $20,000 per location. The movie will continue to expand over the course of May.

Lastly, John Slattery’s directorial debut God’s Pocket (IFC Films), starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, debuted in three theaters in New York and L.A. where it took in $23.4 thousand, less than $8,000 per location.

Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.