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Second is 10 Cloverfield Lane, as at least one of the four openers represents this weekend. The spiritual sequel to the 2008 monster movie got started on Thursday, earning a strong $1.8 million from previews. The preview amount caught me off-guard. I was expecting less, so the decent Thursday night showing pumped my expectations for its weekend. However, the Friday came in at a muted $9 million, and without those previews, only $7.2 million. While not meeting my expectations due to the preview amount, the Friday number did put Cloverfield Lane on target to meet tracking expectations. Over the weekend, the JJ Abrams produced film took in $25.2 million, which is right in line where people predicted it to finish but signals no breakout. Given the interesting marketing campaign, there was definitely upside, but it failed to materialize.

That interesting marketing campaign started about a month ago, when Paramount and Bad Robot announced that this was a spiritual sequel to Cloverfield as they dropped an interesting trailer. All of a sudden, this small film with John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr. was being watched closely. Then, the amazing reviews came, leaving 10 Cloverfield Lane at 91% fresh. Why this didn’t open better than it did is a bit of a mystery to me, but given the small cast and the tiny $15 million budget, this start is exactly what a film like this one needed. The Paramount release sees a little overseas play this weekend, with a further rollout in the weekends to come. Should the overseas result match the domestic, Paramount and Bad Robot will have a significant hit on their hands.

Third goes to Deadpool, as our favorite R-rated hero holds the same position in the top ten as it had in the previous frame, despite four new releases out this weekend. Now an amazing five weekends old, Deadpool was up to his usual tricks again, minting another $10.8 million. The Fox release fell 35% and brought its domestic gross up to $328.1 million, easily cruising past such serious box office performers as Iron Man ($318.4 million) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ($317.6 million). The next big pass will be Guardians of the Galaxy, which earned $333.2 million. Deadpool remains the third biggest R-rated film ever, and should get past American Sniper’s $350.1 million. It will still struggle to get to Passion of the Christ's $370 million. Deadpool has racked up $380 million overseas, so its worldwide total is now more than 12 times that of its $58 million production budget.

Fourth goes to London Has Fallen, and well, yes it has. After opening to a decent $21.6 million last weekend, London falls this weekend, earning only $10.7 million in its second frame. That gives it a drop of 51%, slightly better than Olympus Has Fallen, which dropped 53% in its second weekend. London carries a budget of $60 million, a number this could reach with a better hold next weekend, but it will instead have to rely on overseas box office to get to perceived profitability. It got started in a handful of markets overseas last weekend, earning between $13 and $15 million. Suffice to say that it’s going to need a lot more than that to find success.

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