Weekend Wrap-Up

Alice Rules Over Spring Dumping Ground

By John Hamann

March 21, 2010

I've beaten all of these in Final Fantasy XIII.

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Finishing third is The Bounty Hunter, which was actually ahead of Wimpy Kid on Friday by about a half-million, but then sunk against the kids film as the weekend continued. The Bounty Hunter took in a weekend gross of $21 million from 3,074 venues. The Sony release had a venue average of $6,831. For Jennifer Aniston, The Bounty Hunter gets her back into the world of $20 million openers after a couple of flops, including the awful Love Happens with Aaron Eckhart. Love Happens opened to only $8 million of September of last year and finished with $23 million and an 18% fresh rating at RottenTomatoes. While Bounty improves on the last Aniston opening, it doesn't improve in the review department. The Bounty Hunter was only 8% fresh at RottenTomatoes, and for that I will blame the un-flavor of the past couple of years, Gerard Butler. Butler helped deliver the awful Ugly Truth in July of last year – it also opened well to $27 million, and also was reviewed terribly at 14% fresh. The LA Times reports a budget between $40 and $50 million for Hunter, so this is going to end up as a push for the studio, which should consider itself lucky.

Fourth goes to our last new release, Repo Men, the futuristic thriller (or so I'm told) with Jude Law and Forest Whitaker. This is another disaster for Universal, but at least they are distributing Repo Men for Relativity Media. Repo Men was tracking to open above $10 million, but failed to even do that, as it crashed and burned with an opening frame estimated at $6.2 million. This one is a disaster: poorly marketed, with a confusing premise, and had been on the shelf for years. The writing was on the wall when Universal put it out to only 2,522 venues. This $32 million film will be lucky to earn $15 million before it's done.

Fifth goes to She's Out of My League, the small surprise that opened last weekend. She's Out of My League could have been easily a one and done after thought, but it held okay this weekend. The Jay Baruchel flick earned $6 million, and dropped 38% compared to last weekend. This is a $20 million feature from Paramount that has so far earned $20 million domestically, and should do very well on home video.

Finishing sixth is Green Zone, Universal's flop that opened ahead of She's Out Of My League last weekend. The Matt Damon thriller with the $100 million budget didn't make up for the soft opening frame last weekend, as the Iraq war film had a second weekend gross of $5.96 million. It was off a crushing 58% from last weekend, which will certainly make Green Zone an early favorite for flop of the year. The Paul Greengrass film now has a running total of only $24.7 million, and seems more like a Ben Affleck film than a Matt Damon film. I had a quick look at Universal's summer schedule and didn't see a lot that intrigued me. The Russell Crowe Robin Hood looks lived-in, MacGruber looks as awful as Land of the Lost, but at least there is a Judd Apatow flick and another Matt Damon flick to (maybe) bail the studio out from a hideous 2010.




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Shutter Island slips a few spots to seventh this weekend, as the five-weekend-old Scorsese flick is running out of steam. This weekend, Shutter Island took in $4.8 million, and dips 42% from the previous frame. The $80 million Paramount spooker has now taken in $115.8 million domestically, and about half that number overseas. It needs $133 million to become Scorsese's biggest film behind only The Departed.

Dipping to eighth this weekend (and likely gone in the next frame) is Avatar. Now 14 weekends old, the Oscar loser earned $4 million, and fell 39% compared to the previous frame. It has amassed a domestic gross of $736.9 million, and an overseas cume just short of $2 billion.

Ninth is Our Family Wedding, last weekend's biggest, but likely cheapest, miss. This is another Forest Whitaker film, and this one earned $3.8 million, falling 50% compared to last weekend's opening. Our Family Wedding has a gross so far of $13.7 million.

Remember Me with Robert Pattinson finishes in tenth. Summit Entertainment couldn't convince the Twi-hards to show up for this one, as it earns only $3.3 million in its second weekend. The romantic drama fell 59% from its $8.1 million opening last weekend. Made for only $18 million, Remember Me has taken in $13.9 million so far. Again, this will likely end up as a push for the studio.

Overall this weekend, the box office is still ahead of last year, but the gap is starting to tighten. A year ago, with Nic Cage's under-rated Knowing on top, the top 12 films earned $96.3 million. This year, thanks in large part to the success of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the top 12 films found $122.3 million. Next weekend brings the next big 3D entry in How to Train Your Dragon, as well as the new John Cusack flick, Hot Tub Time Machine.


Top Weekend Box Office for 3/19/10-3/21/10 (Actuals)
Rank Film Distributor Estimated Gross Actual Gross Weekly Change Running Total
1 Alice in Wonderland Walt Disney Pictures $34,509,000 $34,189,969 - 0.9% $265,433,637
2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid 20th Century Fox $21,800,000 $22,126,166 + 1.5% $22,126,166
3 The Bounty Hunter Columbia Pictures (Sony) $21,000,000 $20,686,423 - 1.5% $20,686,423
4 Repo Men Universal Pictures $6,151,240 $6,126,170 - 0.4% $6,126,170
5 Green Zone Universal Pictures $5,962,940 $6,113,105 + 2.5% $24,852,135
6 She's Out of My League Paramount $6,015,000 $5,802,363 - 3.5% $19,741,174
7 Shutter Island Paramount $4,755,000 $4,735,834 - 0.4% $115,741,174
8 Avatar 20th Century Fox $4,000,000 $4,027,005 + 0.7% $736,907,957
9 Our Family Wedding $3,800,000 $3,739,600 - 1.6% $13,608,107
10 Remember Me Summit Entertainment $3,278,000 $3,252,494 - 0.8% $13,918,922
11 The Ghost Writer SUMMIT $2,086,000 $2,063,595 New $6,753,764
12 Brooklyn's Finest Overture Films $1,679,000 $1,640,703 - 2.3% $24,821,335
  Also Opening/Notables
  The Runaways Apparition $803,629 $803,629 0.0% $803,629
  Hubble 3d WARNER BROS. $453,000 $410,920 New $410,920
  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Music Box N/A $335,502 New $335,502
  Greenberg Focus Features $120,432 $118,152 - 1.9% $118,152
  City Island Anchor Bay $35,000 $32,001 New $32,001
  The Red Baron Monterey Media N/A $13,931 New $15,896
  Mid-august Lunch Zeitgeist N/A $13,090 New $16,294
  The Crazies Paramount $1,502,000 $1,488,933 - 0.9% $36,396,873
  Cop Out Warner Bros. Pictures $1,410,000 $1,417,365 + 0.5% $42,571,478
  Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Twentieth Century Fox $1,350,000 $1,368,470 + 1.4% $85,038,766
  Crazy Heart FOX SEARCHLIGHT $1,375,000 $1,395,387 New $36,430,281
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
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