By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
Steal This Movie
Americans were ready for a good laugh and Identity Thief tickled their funny bone to an estimated $36.4 million to easily top weekend ticket sales. The session’s only other new wide release was dramatic thriller Side Effects that ranked third with a decent bow of $9.6 million.
Also sorta-new was a stereoscopic version of 1986’s Top Gun that grossed $1.9 million at 300 airdromes.
In the niches, activity was fierce among Indian imports. Both Hindi Special 26 and Telegu Mirchi opened strong with the former bowing with $462,000 at 85 locations and the latter debuting with $483,000 at 77 sites. A third title, ABCD (Any Body Can Dance), wound up with the scraps with a tally of $89,600 from 25 alphabets. China’s box-office tsunami Lost in Thailand ($200 million box office) hardly brought in the New Year with a bang, grossing just $28,400 from 35 screens.
New exclusive engagements provided some good but not outstanding results including Australia’s and Italy’s Oscar submissions Lore and Caesar Must Die.
Overall box office revenues topped $105 million, furnishing a 22% bump from last weekend’s dismal Super Bowl matchup. It was a whopping 45% decline from 2012 when a trio of new releases led weekend business–The Vow at the top with $41.2 million followed by a $40.2 million launch for Safe House and the persistent Journey 2: The Mysterious Island with a first lap of $27.3 million.
Despite topping opening tracking that suggested a $30 million opening, Identity Theft still had grossed nabbed by snowstorms in the Northeast on Friday and Saturday. They likely ate into box office by about 10%. Nonetheless ,a hearty lot composed of 58% women and 57% aged 30-years and older showed up nationally. The film should hold up reasonably well in the current climate dominated by dramas and genre fare.
Side Effects suffered from an advertising campaign that accentuated thrills over substance. Nonetheless the audience skewed 63% female according to exit demos. It also drew an older audience with 85% of viewers identified as 25-years old and more senior.
The landscape at the multiplex might glibly be described as escapist or Oscar. Despite a general sense of awards malaise, the likes of Silver Linings Playbook, Argo, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty–not to forget the programs of Oscar shorts and Amour–are holding strong against incoming product. It’s not an Oscar bump but it is an extraordinary stimulus that suggests a more strategic approach to the shifting calendar of televised praise that this weekend features the BAFTAs and non-cinematic Grammys.
| Weekend (estimates) February 8 – 10, 2013 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| Identity Thief | Uni | 36.4 (11,600) | NEW | 3141 | 36.4 |
| Warm Bodies | Lionsgate | 11.6 (3,860) | -43% | 3009 | 36.7 |
| Side Effects | Open Road | 9.6 (3,690) | NEW | 2605 | 9.6 |
| Silver Linings Playbook | Weinstein Co. | 6.7 (2,390) | -13% | 2809 | 89.8 |
| Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters | Par | 5.7 (1,720) | -40% | 3285 | 43.7 |
| Mama | Uni/eOne | 4.3 (1,600) | -35% | 2677 | 64 |
| Zero Dark Thirty | Sony/Alliance | 4.0 (1,570) | -22% | 2562 | 83.6 |
| Argo | WB | 2.4 (1,720) | 19% | 1405 | 123.7 |
| Django Unchained | Weinstein Co. | 2.3 (1,500) | -25% | 1502 | 154.5 |
| Lincoln | BV | 1.9 (1,240) | -22% | 1517 | 173.6 |
| Top Gun – Imax (reissue) | Par | 1.9 (6,270) | NEW | 300 | 1.9 |
| Bullet to the Head | WB/eOne | 1.9 (800) | -58% | 2404 | 8.1 |
| Parker | FilmDistrict | 1.7 (860) | -48% | 2004 | 15.7 |
| Life of Pi | Fox | 1.7 (1,810) | -11% | 924 | 108.5 |
| Les Miserables | Uni | 1.5 (1,060) | -36% | 1447 | 144 |
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | WB | 1.5 (1,520) | -20% | 1001 | 298.4 |
| Parental Guidance | Fox | 1.1 (910) | -25% | 1219 | 74.4 |
| Wreck-It Ralph | BV | 1.1 (1,410) | 80% | 757 | 184.4 |
| The Impossible | Lionsgate | .93 (1,260) | -29% | 739 | 16.6 |
| Quartet | Weinstein Co. | .91 (3,730) | -24% | 244 | 5 |
| Gangster Squad | WB | .86 (910) | -53% | 942 | 44.8 |
| A Haunted House | Open Road | .79 (860) | -48% | 913 | 39 |
| Stand Up Guys | Lionsgate | .61 (910) | -59% | 670 | 2.7 |
| Mirchi | Great India | .48 (6,270) | NEW | 77 | 0.104 |
| Broken City | Fox/eOne | .46 (610) | -68% | 755 | 19.2 |
| Special 26 | Viva | .46 (5,440) | NEW | 85 | 0.46 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $101.40 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -45% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | 22% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Amour | Sony Classics | .36 (2,910) | -19% | 125 | 3 |
| 2013 Oscar Shorts | ShortsHD | .28 (2,270) | -24% | 125 | 0.82 |
| ABCD | UTV | 89,600 (3,580) | 25 | 0.09 | |
| The Gatekeepers | Sony Classics | 39,700 (13,230) | -35% | 3 | 0.15 |
| Lore | Music Box | 32,700 (5,450) | 6 | 0.03 | |
| Lost in Thailand | AMC | 28,400 (810) | 35 | 0.03 | |
| Populaire | Metropole | 23,100 (1,150) | 20 | 0.02 | |
| Caesar Must Die | Adopt | 10,200 (5,100) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Glimpse … Mind of Charles Swan III | A24 | 8,900 (4,450) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| The Sorcerer and the White Snake | Magnolia | 7,300 (1,460) | 5 | 0.01 | |
| Spiders | Millennium | 4,300 (540) | 8 | 0.01 | |
| Night Across the Street | Cinema Guild | 3,000 (3,000) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| The Playroom | FreeStyle | 2,900 (1,450) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – February 7, 2013) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Gross | Percentage | |||
| Universal (5) | 154.6 | 16.20% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (5) | 142.7 | 15.00% | |||
| Warner Bros. (7) | 131.6 | 13.80% | |||
| Paramount (7) | 99.1 | 10.40% | |||
| Lions Gate (7) | 93.9 | 9.80% | |||
| Sony (4) | 89.1 | 9.30% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (5) | 78.8 | 8.30% | |||
| Buena Vista (5) | 58.4 | 6.10% | |||
| Open Road (2) | 38.5 | 4.00% | |||
| Film District (3) | 15.5 | 1.60% | |||
| Focus (3) | 13.1 | 1.40% | |||
| Alliance/eOne (3) | 12 | 1.30% | |||
| Relativity (1) | 8.4 | 0.90% | |||
| Other * (40) | 18 | 1.90% | |||
| 953.7 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.45% |
