Weekend Wrap-Up

Cloudy 2 Reigns Over Adult-Oriented Fare

By John Hamann

September 29, 2013

The land that time never knew about

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Baggage Claim, a film starring several beautiful people, takes fourth place. A rom-com that features Paula Patton, Djimon Hounsou and Taye Diggs, Baggage Claim earned $9.3 million from 2,027 venues. That’s about what it cost to make the film ($8.5 million), so financially this one should be in pretty good shape. It did not find the success of Jumping the Broom, Paula Patton’s last rom-com. That 2011 release opened to $15.2 million and finished with $37.3 million.

Fifth place goes to is the independently produced pick up for Relativity Media, Don Jon. Directed by and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon is a tough movie to market to the masses, as it is darker than your usual Katherine Heigl rom-com. However, with Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson above the title, Don Jon did do decent business this weekend, taking in $9 million from 2,422 venues. The cost to produce Don Jon was only $6 million, with Relativity picking up distribution rights for only $4 million. Reviews were good for this one at 81% fresh, but this appears to be a critic’s movie, as the Cinemascore came in at a poor C+. Don Jon should see $25 million plus domestically, and go on to similar business overseas.

Now that he has written, directed and starred in a successful independent film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has become the IT thing in Hollywood. Following appearances in some huge movies like the Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Lincoln, Gordon-Levitt is making some seriously good choices about who he works with. He has completed filming on Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, another buzz-worthy sequel directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Insidious Chapter 2 finishes in sixth, and it was hoping to a have a better frame than last weekend when it fell 66%. It did do slightly better, as the sequel pulled in another $6.7 million, off 51%. While the drops here are not quite as severe as The Purge (76% first weekend drop, 57% in weekend 2), Insidious Chapter 2 is following the same pattern as the last Jason Blum release. The Purge opened to $34 million and finished with $64.5 million; Insidious Chapter 2 opened to $40.3 million and has a gross so far of $69.5 million.

Another film struggling to hold is The Family, the Robert DeNiro/Michelle Pfeiffer mob comedy. Since opening to $14 million, The Family fell 50% last weekend to $7 million, and falls another 48% to $3.7 million this weekend. Made for $30 million by Luc Besson, The Family will have to hope for brisk business overseas, as domestically it has earned only $31.7 million so far.

Eighth, ninth and tenth go to films that have been in the top ten for a long time. Eighth is Instructions Not Included, the Spanish language comedy. Instructions earned another $3.4 million this weekend, down 37%. It will pass Pan’s Labyrinth shortly as the fourth biggest foreign language release ever next weekend. It has pulled in $38.6 million domestically against a $5 million budget.




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We’re the Millers is ninth, as it earns $2.9 million in its eighth weekend. It is now the 32nd biggest movie to never reach number one, as it passed Slumdog Millionaire and The Blair Witch Project this weekend. It has amassed $142.4 million so far domestically, and is approaching $85 million overseas.

Tenth is Lee Daniels’ The Butler, which pulled in another $2.4 million this weekend. The $30 million feature has now earned $110.3 million for The Weinstein Company.

In limited release this weekend, Metallica: Through the Never had a strong frame. It tallied $1.7 million from 308 venues for an average of $5,482. Produced in 3D and showing at IMAX theaters, this one cost $18 million, so Picturehouse will have to hope it holds for a while.

Enough Said also had another strong frame. The James Gandolfini posthumous release earned $2.1 million from an expanded 227 theatres. This weekend it had a venue average of $9,317, and has a gross so far of $2.5 million.

Overall this weekend, things were better than last weekend’s showing, but returns still lag versus last year. The top 12 films this weekend earned $98.1 million; last year, with a strong debut by Hotel Transylvania, the top 12 managed $106.7 million. Next weekend brings the much anticipated Gravity to theaters, along with Runner Runner, the card shark movie with Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake.


Top Ten for Weekend of September 27-29, 2013
Rank
Film
Distributor
Estimated Gross
Weekly Change
Running Total
1 Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 Sony Pictures 35,000,000 New 35,000,000
2 Prisoners Warner Bros. 11,300,000 -46% 39,000,000
3 Rush Universal 10,313,530 New 10,574,439
4 Baggage Claim Fox Searchlight 9,300,000 New 9,300,000
5 Don Jon Relativity 9,000,000 New 9,000,000
6 Insidious Chapter 2 FilmDistrict 6,747,000 -51% 69,544,395
7 The Family Relativity 3,674,000 -48% 31,696,170
8 Instructions Not Included Pantelion Films 3,380,000 -37% 38,567,488
9 We're the Millers Warner Bros. 2,865,000 -37% 142,418,452
10 Lee Daniels' The Butler Weinstein Co. 2,417,000 -42% 110,281,069
11 Enough Said Fox Searchlight 2,115,000 +809% 2,482,479
12 Battle of the Year 3D Sony Pictures 2,000,000 -57% 7,468,292

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