Weekend Wrap-Up

MLK Jr. Weekend Rides Along Thanks to Openers, Oscars

By John Hamann

January 19, 2014

Ooh. The Nut Job sounds painful.

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
With all the new releases, Frozen is down in fifth place, which is new low territory for the animated film that has been in wide release for eight weekends. Despite the new competition from The Nut Job and the length of its release thus far, Frozen still did okay, earning $12 million and dropping 19% from the previous weekend’s take of $14.7 million. This weekend’s score is the fourth biggest for a film in its eighth weekend, behind Titanic, Avatar and Home Alone (which did $12.6 million in weekend eight) and ahead of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, which pulled in $10.4 million in its eighth frame. Frozen has now earned an amazing $332.6 million since opening, and joins the top 30 domestic earners of all-time list, as it moves ahead of Forrest Gump, which earned $329.7 million.

Sixth is American Hustle, as its 10 Oscar nominations and three Golden Globe wins (including Best Picture, Comedy or Musical) propel it past The Wolf of Wall Street, which has been leading it over the last few weekends. With the awards muscle behind it, Hustle was able to earn another $10.6 million, giving it a 28% increase over last weekend’s take of $8.3 million. Sony’s $40 million awards player has now grossed a fantastic $116.4 million domestically, and is just gaining steam overseas with a take so far of around $25 million. The sun should continue to shine on Hustle until the Oscars are handed out on March 2nd.

Finishing seventh this weekend is our final opener, Devil’s Due. As soon as anyone says "found footage" I am not interested, and it appears audiences are following suit. From Fox, Devil’s Due debuted to only $8.5 million from 2,544 venues. It is 20% fresh at RottenTomatoes and earned a D+ Cinemascore. You’ve been warned.

August: Osage County doubled its venues this weekend and slightly increased its audience compared to the previous frame. August earned $7.6 million from 2,051 venues, compared to last weekend when it earned $7.2 million from 905 screens. The weekend to weekend increase is 6%, and it has a gross to date of $18.2 million.




Advertisement



Ninth is The Wolf of Wall Street, as the Paramount title with the big $100 million budget seems to be struggling a bit to keep up. Wolf earned an additional $7.5 million this weekend, off a not bad 15% compared to the previous frame. The Wolf of Wall Street earned half the Oscar noms as American Hustle, and as a result it falls behind with regards to box office. The good news is that the Leo DiCaprio swear fest has earned $90.3 million and should cross the $100 million mark in two weekends. Overseas, it is approaching $40 million.

Saving Mr. Banks, which earned a single Oscar nomination, finished in 10th place for the weekend. Its $4.1 million indicates a weekend-to-weekend decline of 37%, and its domestic total now sits at $75.4 million. It has only just gotten started in overseas venues, where it is approaching the $10 million mark.

Films sent packing from the top ten this weekend include Spike Jonze’s Her, which was nominated for Best Picture plus four other Oscars. Still, audiences still seem to be shying away from what appears to be one of the better films of the year. Her earned $4.1 million and dropped 24% despite the nominations. It has a gross so far of $15 million. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug also got the boot this weekend, finishing 12th with a gross of $3.9 million. Finally, The Legend of Hercules fell from third last weekend to 13th this weekend, dropping a searing 62%. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Overall, the box office is quite healthy thanks to numerous openers and happy holdovers. The top 12 films earned a stellar $160.5 million this weekend, way ahead of both last year’s MLK weekend when the top 12 took in $117.5 million (led by Mama), and the 2012 weekend at $115.1 million. Next weekend is historically soft, and brings only one opener, I Frankenstein, which looks bad to the camp degree.


Top Weekend Box Office for 1/17/14-1/19/14 (Estimates)
Rank Film Distributor Estimated Gross Weekly Change Running Total
1 Ride Along New Line Cinema $41,236,555 New $47,747,590
2 Lone Survivor UNIVERSAL $23,239,475 - 39% $78,384,000
3 The Nut Job Open Road Films $20,550,000 New $27,200,000
4 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit PARAMOUNT $17,200,000 New $20,000,000
5 Frozen DISNEY $11,971,000 - 19% $337,030,000
6 American Hustle SONY $10,600,000 + 28% $118,000,000
7 Devil's Due Fox $8,500,000 New $9,500,000
8 August: Osage County Weinstein Co. $7,592,000 + 6% $19,500,000
9 The Wolf of Wall Street PARAMOUNT $7,500,000 - 15% $91,677,000
10 Saving Mr. Banks DISNEY $4,147,000 - 37% $75,391,000
11 Her WARNER BROS. $4,065,000 - 24% $15,700,000
12 The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug WARNER BROS. $3,875,000 - 52% $249,500,000
  Also Opening/Notables
  American Mustang Vitagraph/just Media $8,100 New $9,500
  Life of a King Millennium $4,304 New $5,000
  The Legend of Hercules Lionsgate $3,400,000 - 62% $14,980,000
  Paranormal Activity: the Marked Ones PARAMOUNT $1,420,000 - 77% $31,533,000
  The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Paramount $1,350,000 - 69% $55,395,800
  Anchorman 2 PARAMOUNT $2,240,000 - 62% $122,631,000
  Inside Llewyn Davis Cbs Films $1,105,000 - 41% $11,376,261
  Philomena Weinstein Co. $1,307,000 - 6% $24,250,000
  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Lionsgate $2,900,000 - 34% $418,500,000
  Nebraska PARAMOUNT $940,000 + 6% $9,915,000
  Dallas Buyers Club Focus Features $917,000 + 282% $17,900,000
  12 Years a Slave FOX SEARCHLIGHT $1,515,000 + 460% $40,914,300
  Gravity WARNER BROS. $1,945,000 + 364% $258,500,000
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
Continued:       1       2       3

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.