There were other movies this weekend other than American Sniper, and this will be the place where I discuss them. Sony’s The Wedding Ringer opened yesterday with a solid $7 million yesterday, setting the stage for a $20.5m Fri-Sun frame and $23.8m Fri-Mon debut weekend. This was an interesting test case of sorts for Kevin Hart, as the somewhat generic looking comedy (sold as Hitch meets I Love You, Man meets The Hangover) was Hart’s first vehicle to surround him with mostly white cast members (none of whom are box office draws). The film felt like an oddly lower profile release in the media, and I suppose it was drowned out by all the Oscar talk and Michael Mann think pieces/retrospectives.
Sony’s marketing was mostly based on a deluge of preview screenings and various would-be “viral” events (such as Hart and Gad crashing weddings). Even if the debut comes in below the $48m Fri-Mon debut of Ride Along (duh), the $29m Fri-Sun debut of Think Like A Man Too, or even the $25m debut of About Last Night, we’re still talking about a $23m R-rated comedy that will make its budget back by Monday.If Sony and/or Kevin Hart was attempting to get white audiences that otherwise avoided the likes of Ride Along, they picked the wrong weekend to open. I imagine that Get Hard, which co-stars an actual comedy movie star (Will Ferrell) will do a bit better than March.
The next big release is The Weinstein Company’s Paddington. The $55 million Heyday Films/Studio Canal production was supposed to debut over Christmas but was moved to avoid the deluge of Into the Woods, Annie, and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. Good choice, folks. The film has already earned a stunning $122m worldwide going into the weekend, and the utterly charming and robustly entertaining family film earned $4.66 million last night, which paves the way for a $19m Fri-Sun and $23m Fri-Mon debut frame. Again, the film has already made a mint around the world, especially in the UK, so its success in America is basically gravy.
The rave reviews didn’t hurt either, as the film scored a 98% from Rotten Tomatoes. By the way, for all the (admittedly amusing) talk about how creepy Paddington looked when the first image was released, it should be noted that not a single kid in our packed Friday night audience was remotely frightened on the adorable little bear. As is the case with “dead eyes” performance capture, I am again amused by how much effort adults put into being frightened or creeped out by something that was intended for children and doesn’t remotely frighten said target audience. I don’t know a single kid in ten years who ever had any issues with The Polar Express‘s animation techniques.
The last new wide release was the first major bomb of the year. Michael Mann’s Blackhat probably counted on being the big R-rated muscular action movie of the weekend, but that plan backfired spectacularly. With action junkies flocking to American Sniper and/or Taken 3, the Chris Hemsworth cyber-thriller earned just $1.4 million on its first day. The $70m Legendary Pictures release, distributed by Universal/Comcast Corp., will likely end its holiday weekend with $4.8m and will be lucky to get to $15m total in America. The potential good news is that much of the film takes place in Hong Kong and features Chinese actors like Wei Tang and Leeholm Tang in starring roles alongside Chris Hemsworth. I imagine Universal is hoping the film will play in China and play well in China. But that’s a lot of “if and when” speculation. Its trump card, that is was an R-rated, adult-skewing, old-school star-driven action thriller, was completely negated by American Sniper. The low-key film was never going to be a domestic blockbuster, but it may end up, when adjusted for inflation, being Michael Mann’s lowest-grossing film ever.
Lions Gate and Pantelion Films released Spare Parts in 441 theaters. The George Lopez/Jamie Lee Curtis/Marisa Tomei feel-good drama about kids who form a robotics club earned around $250,000 yesterday for a $825k weekend. It’s nothing to brag about, but I thought you should know about it. In holdover news, Taken 3 earned $4.25 million (-71%) on its second Friday, which is worse than the 61% Friday-to-Friday drop for Taken 2. Nonetheless, the $48m Liam Neeson sequel will likely end the holiday frame with a $14m Fri-Sun frame and $17m haul (-63% from the Fri-Sun $39m debut) and a $66m eleven-day total. Considering it has already made $64m overseas heading into this weekend, no one will be weeping for Fox or Europacorp.
No comments:
Post a Comment