By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
Jack of Some Trades
Jack the Giant Slayer cut a sufficient swath estimated at $27.2 million to emerge the top weekend attraction at the box office. The frame’s other new national releases were considerably more modest. The barely legal 21 and Over bowed to $8.9 million while the shocker sequel The Last Exorcism II opened with $7.7 million. And running well beneath the radar, the submarine thriller Phantom dived in with $462,000 at 1118 locales.
In the niches there was disappointment for the sober sided Bollywood entry The Attacks of 26/11 on the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks that grossed $163,000 at 52 venues. Conversely the Pinoy circuit saw a strong showing of $235,000 at 37 sites for the romantic A Moment in Time and the kidcentric The Last Medallion: The Adventures of Billy Stone got by with $165,000 from 69 playdates.
Exclusive engagements saw a dynamic bow for the thriller Stoker of $159,000 from seven engagements in a week jam-packed with new titles. The only other limited opener to show evidence of a commercial pulse was the tuneful Hava Nagila: The Movie with a $7,200 tally from a solo flight.
Post-Oscar revenues pushed close to $110 million and a modest 5% boost from last weekend’s box office. It was however the sixth consecutive weekend of downturns from 2012 with the current session off 36% compared to last year’s performance when debuts of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax and Project X led sales with respective bows of $70.2 million and $21.1 million.
Jack the Giant Slayer had been tracking with anticipation of a $35 million debut. However, industry pundits posited that in light of a hefty negative it really needed to post a $50 million box office. Certainly part of the problem was an advertising campaign that worked assiduously to mask its family friendly bona fides.
Jack’s fate rests with international response with initial Asian engagements strong but hardly definitive. On the home front the audience was 55% male and an audience 56% aged 25-years and upward.
Drinking from The Hangover trough 21 and Over attracted a crowd that was 73% aged 25-years and younger. It was surprisingly evenly split between the sexes according to exit polling.
Whether one viewed the Oscar telecast as horrible or took a more generous view of wretchedly sophomoric, the 2013 major winners wound up adding a few screens and seeing modest theatrical box office upturns. However, the truth is the era of the Oscar bump disappeared more than a decade ago with contenders opting to capitalize on ancillary revenue streams.
Weekend (estimates) March 1 – 3, 2013 | |||||
Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtr | Cume |
Jack the Giant Slayer | WB | 27.2 (7,720) | NEW | 3525 | 27.2 |
Identity Thief | Uni | 9.7 (3,000) | -31% | 3230 | 107.4 |
21 and Over | Relativity | 8.9 (3,220) | NEW | 2771 | 8.9 |
The Last Exorcism II | CBS | 7.7 (2,860) | NEW | 2700 | 7.7 |
Snitch | Lions Gate | 7.6 (3,030) | -42% | 2511 | 24.3 |
Escape from Planet Earth | Weinstein Co. | 6.7 (2,150) | -37% | 3110 | 43.2 |
Safe Haven | Relativity | 6.3 (2,120) | -40% | 2951 | 57.1 |
Silver Linings Playbook | Weinstein Co. | 5.8 (3,160) | 1% | 1836 | 115.4 |
A Good Day to Die Hard | Fox | 4.4 (1,710) | -56% | 2589 | 59.5 |
Dark Skies | Weinstein Co. | 3.5 (1,530) | -57% | 2313 | 13.4 |
Warm Bodies | Lions Gate | 2.6 (1,360) | -46% | 1930 | 62 |
Life of Pi | Fox | 2.3 (3,640) | 42% | 626 | 116.9 |
Argo | WB | 2.1 (2,150) | 16% | 985 | 132.7 |
Side Effects | OpenRoad/e1 | 1.7 (1,510) | -50% | 1112 | 28 |
Quartet | Weinstein Co. | 1.6 (2,260) | 46% | 725 | 11 |
Zero Dark Thirty | Sony/Alliance | 1.3 (1,760) | -43% | 722 | 93.5 |
Django Unchained | Weinstein Co. | 1.0 (1,010) | 2% | 983 | 160.3 |
Lincoln | BV | .94 (1,440) | -37% | 652 | 180 |
Beautiful Creatures | WB | .91 (850) | -75% | 1075 | 18.5 |
Wreck-It Ralph | BV | .56 (1,590) | -13% | 352 | 187.4 |
Les Miserables | Uni | .55 (1,560) | -13% | 352 | 147.6 |
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters | Par | .54 (900) | -68% | 601 | 54.1 |
Phantom | RCR | .46 (410) | NEW | 1118 | 0.46 |
Amour | Sony Classics | .45 (1,360) | -37% | 333 | 5.8 |
Mama | Uni/eOne | .33 (740) | -72% | 447 | 70.9 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $104.10 | ||||
% Change (Last Year) | -36% | ||||
% Change (Last Week) | 5% | ||||
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
A Moment in Time | ABS | .23 (6,340) | 37 | 0.24 | |
The Gatekeepers | Sony Classics | .23 (5,050) | 74% | 46 | 0.66 |
Asterix & Obelix au service de sa majeste | Alliance | .19 (2,390) | -34% | 79 | 0.57 |
The Lost Medallion: Adventures of Billy Stone | FreeStyle | .17 (2,390) | 69 | 0.17 | |
Stoker | Searchlight | .16 (22,760) | 7 | 0.16 | |
The Attacks of 11/26 | Eros | .16 (3,140) | 52 | 0.16 | |
No | Sony Classics | .10 (8,760) | 39% | 11 | 0.32 |
A Place at the Table | Magnolia | 91,200 (2,610) | 35 | 0.09 | |
Legend of Sarila | Seville | 75,700 (1,680) | 45 | 0.08 | |
Haute cuisine | Metropole | 61,400 (3,840) | 16 | 0.06 | |
I, Me aur Main | Big Pictures | 55,200 (1,280) | 43 | 0.06 | |
The Sweeney | eOne | 16,900 (1,540) | 11 | 0.02 | |
The Movie Out Here | Alliance | 15,300 (570) | 27 | 0.02 | |
Mr. Pellikoduku | Blue Sky | 11,700 (290) | 41 | 0.01 | |
Ernest & Celestine | Metropole | 11,100 (430) | 26 | 0.01 | |
War Witch | TriBeCa | 8,600 (4,300) | 2 | 0.01 | |
Leviathan | Cinema Guild | 8,300 (8,300) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Genius on Hold | FreeStyle | 7,700 (3,850) | 2 | 0.01 | |
Hava Nagila: The Movie | Intl Film Circuit | 7,200 (7,200) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Charlie Zone | Pacific Northwest | 4,600 (2,300) | 2 | 0.01 | |
Molly’s Theory of Relativity | Adopt | 4,300 (4,300) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Welcome to Pine Hill | Oscilloscope | 3,200 (3,200) | 1 | 0.01 | |
The Condemned | Strand | 2,800 (2,800) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Day of the Falcon | Image Ent. | 2,500 (250) | 10 | 0.01 | |
Domestic Market Share (January 1 – February 28, 2013) | |||||
Distributor (releases) | Gross | Percentage | |||
Universal (5) | 267.8 | 18.40% | |||
Weinstein Co. (7) | 228.2 | 15.70% | |||
Warner Bros. (8) | 168.8 | 11.60% | |||
Lions Gate (10) | 149.8 | 10.30% | |||
20th Century Fox (6) | 145.2 | 10.00% | |||
Paramount (8) | 120.3 | 8.30% | |||
Sony (4) | 102.3 | 7.00% | |||
Buena Vista (5) | 69.7 | 4.80% | |||
Open Road (3) | 64.4 | 4.40% | |||
Relativity (2) | 59.6 | 4.10% | |||
Film District (3) | 19.1 | 1.30% | |||
Alliance/eOne (7) | 16.5 | 1.10% | |||
Focus (3) | 13.8 | 0.90% | |||
Sony Classics (6) | 7.6 | 0.50% | |||
Other * (49) | 22.6 | 1.60% | |||
1455.7 | 100% | ||||
* none greater than 0.45% |