The Weekend Report, April 15, 2012

I Got Plenty of Nyucking

Was it a fair fight? Katniss vs. Moe, Larry and Curly. Regardless, The Hunger Games made it a hat trick as box office champ with an estimated $21.3 million while the contemporized The Three Stooges bowed to $17.2 million.

The session also featured two other wide release freshmen. The bump in the night Cabin in the Woods ranked third with a $14.8 million tally and further down the list Lockout, a future set actioner, bowed to $6.2 million.

The weekend heat came largely in the niches. The continuation of Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the 7^th Day revealed a new story from T.D. Jakes and grossed an impressive $660,000 from 103 pews. In Quebec the good news was French box office sensation Intouchables opening with $314,000 at 44 sites. On the flip side Brit hip hopping StreetDance 2 lost the beat with $121,000 from 80 exposures.

Quebec export and foreign-language nominee Monsieur Lazhar made a successful border crossing with an $118,000 debut at 19 locations (it’s grossed $3.8 million in Canada). Among the dozen other exclusive newcomers only the Chinese import A Simple Life registered with $41,400 from 9 playdates.

Overall weekend revenues amassed about $115 million for a 5% decline from the prior frame. It was also 13% off of 2011’s pace when the bows of Rio and Scream 4 respectively grossed $39.2 million and $18.7 million.

The Hunger Games continues to climb up the all-time domestic box office charts and now ranks in the top 25 with a shot to reach the top 10 with an eventual gross of more than $400 million.

There were mixed emotions about bring The Three Stooges up to date and tracking indicated low expectations of $12 million to $15 million. But viewers proved more receptive to the antics and it’s well positioned as one of the few comedies in the marketplace. Opening exit demos revealed a not unexpected male tilt of 58% and an encouraging 52% audience aged 25 years and younger.

Cabin in the Woods came in at the low end of the pundit’s crystal ball range of $14 million to $16 million. It certainly seemed like a cookie cutter chiller though reviews were better than usual for the genre. Again men were in the majority with 57% of sales but the crowd was 65% aged older than 25 years.

Considerably more brutish was the estimated $58 million generated internationally by Battleship that opens May 18 on these shores. The board game inspired mayhem opened in 28 territories and could well prove to be one of the more shrewd strategic moves of the year. Essentially it entered the marketplace in advance of World Cup and Olympic fever that traditionally has pancaked movie going activity.

The May 4 bow of The Avengers doesn’t leave much time for alternative movies to secure a foothold at the multiplex. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen should secure about $8 million by that date but Bully’s rather timid $530,000 gross this weekend as it widened to 158 locations hasn’t been able to translate headlines into ticket sales.

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