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.
Things looked better at the box office this weekend as the action-comedy 21 Jump Street (Sony), pairing Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, opened at #1 with an estimated $35 million in 3,121 theaters, a strong showing for the R-rated reinvention of the ’80s television show that starred Johnny Depp. It marks the biggest non-animated opening for the film’s co-writer and exec. producer Jonah Hill (in which he has a credited role), surpassing Superbad‘s opening five years ago, as well as Channing Tatum’s third-biggest movie opening.
Universal Pictures’ animated Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax dropped to second place with $22.8 million (down 41%) with a total gross of $158 million after three weekends.
After a disappointing opening weekend, Disney’s John Carter was hit hard with a 55% plunge to third place with $13.5 million and a 10-day gross of $53.2 million. Overseas, John Carter added $40.7 million in first place for an international gross of $126.1 million so far and a worldwide total of $179.3 million.
The opening of 21 Jump Street took business away from the year’s other major R-rated comedy, Project X (Warner Bros.), which dropped 64% to fourth place with $4 million and $48 million total.
Eddie Murphy’s long-delayed comedy A Thousand Words (Paramount) not only held up well in its second weekend but actually moved up a spot to fifth with $3.8 million, down just 39% from its opening weekend. It has grossed a pitiful $12.1 million in ten days but clearly is holding its own by offering something different.
It was followed in sixth place by the Bandito Brothers’ action flick Act of Valor (Relativity Media) with $3.7 million earned to bring its total to $62.4 million.
The Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds action-thriller Safe House (Universal) took seventh place with $2.8 million bringing its total to $120 million, while the family action-adventure Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (New Line/WB) took eighth with $2.5 million and $95 million total.
Opening in just 382 theaters, Will Ferrell’s Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi Padre (Pantelion Films), co-starring Genesis Rodriguez, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, brought in $2.2 million in its opening weekend, averaging roughly $5,800 per location to take ninth place.
The Top 10 was rounded out by Reese Witherspoon’s romantic action-comedy This Means War with $2.1 million and $50.5 million total.
Meanwhile, last week’s Silent House (Open Road), starring Elizabeth Olsen, dropped nearly 70%, falling right out of the Top 10 with a second weekend gross of roughly $2 million.
Despite the success of 21 Jump Street, the Top 10 was down nearly 8% from the same weekend last year, the first weekend in 2012 down from 2011, but last year saw the release of three new movies led by Relativity Media’s Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper, with just under $19 million.
Jason Segel, Ed Helms and Susan Sarandon starred in the new Duplass Brothers comedy Jeff, Who Lives at Home (Paramount Vantage), which grossed roughly $840 thousand in 254 theaters, a relatively weak average of $3,300 per theater.
Nicolas Cage’s year continues to go from bad to worse as his latest action-thriller Seeking Justice (Anchor Bay Films) opened in nearly 231 theaters but still tanked badly to bring in just $260,000, averaging roughly $1,100 per site, which may be an all-time low for Cage.
Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.
