By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
Dog Day Matinee
Lee Daniels’ The Butler continued to serve it up and take top spot among weekend moviegoers with an estimated $16.9 million.
A sure sign of summer’s end is the lack of new product to buttress the declining days until the Labor Day holiday. Three new national releases failed to ignite much fire with the best of the batch being third-ranked The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, a teen lit fave that fell short of Twilight potential with an opening weekend launch of $9.4 million. On its tail were the apocalyptic comedy The World’s End at $9 million and the horror entry You’re Next with $7.1 million.
Exclusive bows were largely bland with exceptions including SXSW winner Short Term 12 bowing to $55,300 at four screens and China import The Grandmaster chop-socking $132,000 from seven initial bouts.
In the niches ,Bollywood provided a solid performance with Madras Café grossing $261,000 with backup from Punjabi Jatt Boys Putt Jatta De at $57,200 at 23 venues and a disappointing $23,600 for Telugu Anthaku Mundu Aataruvatha at 22 sites. There was also tepid response for Lac Mystère in Québec of $48,100 from 32 engagements.
Session revenues topped $110 million, which translated into a 22% dip from seven days prior, but exceeded the 2013 comparable by 16%. Twelve months back, holdovers of The Expendables 2 and The Bourne Legacy were in the catbird seat with respective weekend’s of $13.4 million and $9.3 million.
Anticipation was high (or at least better than the box office result) for Mortal Instruments, a femme-skewing adventure from the series by author Cassandra Clare. It jumpstarted the weekend with a Wednesday launch that generated $4.75 million in two days, but quickly lost steam and fell short of fair results. The initial audience was 68% composed of women. with 54% of the crowd aged 21-years and older according to studio exit results. Sequel potential will rest on overseas results.
Comedy at the end of the world seems to have caught on this summer, and Brit fave The World’s End appeared to have superior crossing power to earlier Wright-Pegg effort Paul. It proved to be a boy’s thing with a 58% male audience and 54% of the audience aged 30-years and older.
The session also saw the national expansion of Blue Jasmine to excellent (but not record-breaking) returns and similar upbeat platform biz for The Spectacular Now and Austenland.
Weekend (estimates) August 23 – 25, 2013 | |||||
Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
Lee Daniels’ The Butler | Weinstein Co. | 16.9 (5,440) | -31% | 3110 | 52.2 |
We’re the Millers | WB | 13.4 (3,890) | -25% | 3445 | 91.7 |
The Mortal Instruements: City of Bones | Sony | 9.4 (3,020) | NEW | 3118 | 14.2 |
The World’s End | Focus | 9.0 (5,800) | NEW | 1548 | 9 |
Planes | BV | 8.6 (2,540) | -36% | 3378 | 59.6 |
You’re Next | Lionsgate | 7.1 (2,920) | NEW | 2435 | 7.1 |
Elysium | Sony | 6.9 (2,380) | -49% | 2913 | 68.9 |
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters | Fox | 5.2 (1,920) | -40% | 2730 | 48.4 |
Kick-Ass 2 | Uni | 4.3 (1,450) | -68% | 2945 | 22.4 |
Blue Jasmine | Sony Classics | 4.1 (3,230) | 81% | 1283 | 14.6 |
2 Guns | Uni/eOne | 3.4 (1,830) | -42% | 1841 | 65.4 |
Jobs | Open Road | 2.9 (1,230) | -57% | 2381 | 12.1 |
The Smurfs 2 | Sony | 2.8 (1.500) | -42% | 1852 | 62.6 |
Despicable Me | Uni | 2.5 (1,810) | -35% | 1402 | 350.6 |
The Wolverine | Fox | 2.5 (1,710) | -45% | 1449 | 125.1 |
The Conjuring | WB | 2.1 (1,520) | -46% | 1355 | 131.7 |
Paranoia | Relativity | 1.4 (560) | -61% | 2459 | 6.3 |
Grown Ups 2 | Sony | .93 (1,500) | -46% | 620 | 129 |
The Spectacular Now | A24 | .63 (4,090) | 53% | 154 | 1.9 |
Turbo | Fox | .62 (1,320) | -43% | 470 | 78.8 |
The Heat | Fox | .52 (1,270) | -41% | 409 | 156.4 |
The Way, Way Back | Fox Searchlight | .42 (1,400) | -43% | 302 | 18.6 |
Chennai Express | UTV | .39 (2,710) | -57% | 143 | 4.7 |
Pacific Rim | WB | .38 (1,470) | -46% | 260 | 99.2 |
Monsters University | BV | .37 (1,520) | -20% | 243 | 261.8 |
Now You See Me | Lionsgate | .36 (1,450) | 134% | 246 | 116.4 |
Red 2 | Lionsgate | .35 (890) | -50% | 389 | 51.6 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $105.20 | ||||
% Change (Last Year) | 16% | ||||
% Change (Last Week) | -22% | ||||
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
In a World | Roadside | .29 (3,920) | 35% | 75 | 0.65 |
Fruitvale Station | Weinstein Co. | .28 (710) | -46% | 392 | 15.2 |
Madras Café | Viva | .26 (4,580) | 57 | 0.26 | |
The Grandmaster | Weinstein Co. | .13 (18,810) | 7 | 0.13 | |
Blackfish | Magnolia | .12 (1,470) | -36% | 83 | 1.6 |
Austenland | Sony Classics | .12 (5,200) | 192% | 23 | 0.18 |
20 Feet from Stardom | Weinstein Co. | 72,500 (1,150) | -40% | 63 | 4.2 |
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints | IFC | 63,700 (2,280) | 141% | 28 | 0.1 |
Jatt Boys Putt Jatta De | White Hill | 57,200 (2,490) | 23 | 0.06 | |
Short Term 12 | Cinedigm | 55,300 (13,820) | 4 | 0.06 | |
Lac Mystere | Seville | 48,100 (1,500) | 32 | 0.05 | |
The Frozen Ground | Lionsgate | 26,800 (2,230) | 12 | 0.03 | |
Anthaku Mundu Aataruvatha | Fables | 23,600 (1,050) | 22 | 0.02 | |
You Will Be My Son | Cohen Media | 18,400 (3,070) | 20% | 6 | 0.04 |
Drinking Buddies | Magnolia | 17,900 (8,950) | 2 | 0.02 | |
Una Noche | IFC | 16,300 (5,430) | 3 | 0.02 | |
Savannah | Ketchup | 15,800 (1,130) | 14 | 0.02 | |
Therese | MPI | 15,100 (3,020) | 5 | 0.02 | |
The Trials of Muhammad Ali | Kino | 2,700 (2,700) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – Aug. 22, 2013) | |||||
Distributor (releases) | Box Office (millions) | Market Share | |||
Warner Bros. (17) | 1216.9 | 16.40% | |||
Universal (13) | 1202.6 | 16.30% | |||
Buena Vista (10) | 1119.9 | 15.10% | |||
20th Century Fox (13) | 907.9 | 12.30% | |||
Paramount (12) | 723.1 | 9.80% | |||
Sony (13) | 696.5 | 9.40% | |||
Lionsgate (18) | 470.2 | 6.30% | |||
Weinstein Co. (17) | 384.3 | 5.20% | |||
FilmDistrict (5) | 120.2 | 1.60% | |||
Relativity (4) | 110.8 | 1.50% | |||
Open Road (5) | 103.3 | 1.40% | |||
Focus (6) | 53.7 | 0.70% | |||
Sony Classics (15) | 42.1 | 0.60% | |||
Other * (240) | 247.2 | 3.40% | |||
7398.7 | 100% | ||||
* none greater than 0.45% | |||||
Top Domestic Grossers (Jan. 1 – Aug. 22, 2013) | |||||
Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
Iron Man 3 | BV | 408,351,942 | |||
Despicable Me 2 | Uni | 348,100,420 | |||
Man of Steel | WB | 289,875,976 | |||
Monsters University | BV | 261,420,191 | |||
Fast & Furious 6 | Uni | 238,497,875 | |||
Oz the Great and Powerful | BV | 234,911,825 | |||
Star Trek Into Darkness | Par | 227,271,488 | |||
World War Z | Par | 198,540,021 | |||
The Croods | Fox | 187,033,567 | |||
The Heat | Fox | 155,847,878 | |||
The Great Gatsby | WB | 144,840,419 | |||
Identity Thief | Uni | 134,863,488 | |||
The Conjuring | WB | 129,610,708 | |||
Grown Ups 2 | Sony | 128,044,631 | |||
The Wolverine | Fox | 122,595,676 | |||
G.I. Joe: Retaliation | Par | 122,551,310 | |||
Now You See Me | Lionsgate | 116,096,827 | |||
The Hangover Part III | WB | 112,200,072 | |||
Epic | Fox | 107,279,341 | |||
Silver Linings Playbook * | Weinstein Co. | 103,633,972 | |||
* does not include 2012 box office |
“The World’s End appeared to have superior crossing power to earlier Wright-Pegg effort Paul”
Edgar Wright had no involvement with “Paul”. Pegg wrote it with Nick Frost and it was directed by Greg Mottola.