By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
To no great surprise, the debut of Riddick shot to the top of the weekend charts with an estimated $18.6 million. It was the sole new national release in what is traditionally one of the lowest attended movie periods of the year.
There was a tidal wave of exclusive openings but only doc portrait Salinger posted big numbers of $89,200 with a mere four carbons.
In limited wide release the dramatic The Ultimate Life opened modestly to $680,000 at 412 locations. There were also a handful of Indian imports but only the Hindi Shuddh Desi Romance registered with OK results of $370,000 gross from 115 engagements.
Overall weekend box office sunk to about $82 million for a 35% plunge from the three-day portion of the Labor holiday. It was however 26% improved from 2012 when the holdover of The Possession grossed $9.3 million and the top debuting title The Words slotted fourth with a box office of $4.8 million.
Riddick, the latest chapter in the Pitch Black series that launched Vin Diesel’s career back in 2000, opened a tad below an anticipated $20 million. The fatigued franchise plowed on and attracted a 59% male audience with 53% of viewers aged 30-years old and more senior. While the results were predictable, there’s little question that the presence of a mid-level actioner was sufficient to goose business during the doldrums prior to Thanksgiving.
For those who missed last week’s news that summer box office rose 3% to $4.56 billion, the summer box office expanded slightly. That slim bump is also likely to mean that the audience remained consistent and judging from the plethora of high budget entries, the average cost of high profile releases was considerably greater than 3%.
So, the drubbing many expensive films took in the domestic marketplace will have to be made up from international, ancillary and long term library exploitation. Theatrical continues to be the great invalid of the movie industry, particularly in North America where the past two decades have underlined the hard cover/soft cover relationship inherent in the evolving stages of movie windows and revenues.
| Weekend (estimates) September 6 – 8, 2013 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change * | Theaters | Cume |
| Riddick | Uni | 18.6 (6,000) | NEW | 3107 | 18.6 |
| Lee Daniels’ The Butler | Weinstein | 8.7 (2,620) | -41% | 3330 | 91.7 |
| We’re the Millers | WB | 7.8 (2,270) | -38% | 3445 | 123.7 |
| Instructions Not Included | Lionsgate | 7.7 (10,700) | -2% | 717 | 19.9 |
| Planes | BV | 4.2 (1,380) | -46% | 3033 | 79.2 |
| One Direction: This is Us | Sony | 4.1 (1,490) | -74% | 2735 | 24 |
| Elysium | Sony | 3.0 (1,350) | -53% | 2241 | 85 |
| Blue Jasmine | Sony Classics | 2.5 (2,320) | -38% | 1069 | 25.3 |
| Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters | Fox | 2.4 (1,180) | -46% | 2045 | 59.8 |
| The World’s End | Focus | 2.3 (1,510) | -55% | 1520 | 21.8 |
| Getaway | WB | 2.2 (1,040) | -51% | 2135 | 8.7 |
| The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones | Sony/eOne | 2.2 (870) | -60% | 2519 | 27.8 |
| This is the End | Sony | 1.9 (890) | 1844% | 2161 | 98.9 |
| You’re Next | Lionsgate | 1.6 (820) | -62% | 1902 | 16.9 |
| Despicable Me | Uni | 1.4 (1,360) | -48% | 1050 | 357.5 |
| 2 Guns | Uni/eOne | 1.4 (1,210) | -47% | 1165 | 72.1 |
| The Grandmaster | Weinstein | 1.0 (1,250) | -59% | 804 | 4.9 |
| Closed Circuit | Focus | .95 (1,090) | -61% | 870 | 5 |
| The Smurfs 2 | Sony | .89 (940) | -54% | 949 | 68.2 |
| The Wolverine | Fox | .74 (1,060) | -57% | 698 | 129.4 |
| The Conjuring | WB | .73 (1,020) | -49% | 716 | 135.2 |
| The Spectacular Now | A24 | .69 (1,660) | -39% | 415 | 4.8 |
| The Ultimate Life | High Top | .68 (1,650) | NEW | 412 | 0.68 |
| Kick-Ass 2 | Uni | .62 (910) | -68% | 682 | 28.1 |
| The Way, Way Back | Fox Searchlight | .46 (840) | -42% | 550 | 20.4 |
| Monsters University | BV | .46 (770) | -71% | 596 | 265 |
| World War Z | Par | .42 (1,120) | -67% | 374 | 201.4 |
| Jobs | Open Road/Remstar | .40 (800) | -67% | 502 | 15.5 |
| Shuddh Desi Romance | Yash Raj | ,37 (3,210) | NEW | 115 | 0.37 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $78.30 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | 26% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -35% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| In a World | Roadside | .31 (3,000) | -8% | 102 | 1.7 |
| Austenland | Sony Classics | .19 (3,270) | -1% | 58 | 0.75 |
| Adore | Exclusive | .12 (2,100) | 57 | 0.12 | |
| Short Term 12 | Cinedigm | 92,400 (3,550) | 1% | 26 | 0.32 |
| Zanjeer | Big Pictures | 91,400 (1,170) | 78 | 0.09 | |
| Salinger | Weinstein | 89,200 (22,300) | 4 | 0.09 | |
| Winnie Mandela | Image | 66,900 (2,090) | 32 | 0.07 | |
| Toofan | Big Picture | 49,600 (1,080) | 46 | 0.05 | |
| Jappeloup | Seville | 39,300 (1,790) | 22 | 0.04 | |
| Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam | ATMUS | 37,800 (1,640) | 23 | 0.04 | |
| Laughing to the Bank | Make It Rain | 33,300 (210) | 156 | 0.03 | |
| Mission Park | Irez Pictures | 24,900 (1,660) | 15 | 0.02 | |
| Tio Papi | JMC | 16,800 (800) | 21 | 0.02 | |
| Populaire | Weinstein Co. | 16,600 (5,530) | 3 | 0.02 | |
| Camille Claudel 1915 | Equinoxe | 13,500 (3,380) | 4 | 0.01 | |
| Bounty Killer | Arc Entertainment | 12,500 (1,250) | 10 | 0.01 | |
| Good Ol’ Freda | Magnolia | 7,700 (7,700) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| 36 Saints | Active Fox | 7,600 (840) | 9 | 0.01 | |
| Money for Nothing | Liberty Street | 7,100 (7,100) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Things Never Said | Codeblack | 4,400 (4,400) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Hell Baby | Millennium | 3,900 (390) | 10 | 0.01 | |
| A Teacher | Oscilloscope | 3,500 (1,750) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Touchy Feely | Magnolia | 3,200 (1,600) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Dead Before Dawn | Gaiam Vivendi | 2,800 (460) | 6 | 0.01 | |
| Out of the Clear Blue Sky | Area 23a | 2,300 (2,300) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – Sept. 5, 2013) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office (millions) | Market Share | |||
| Warner Bros. (18) | 1268.7 | 16.40% | |||
| Universal (14) | 1229.9 | 15.90% | |||
| Buena Vista (10) | 1148.3 | 14.80% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (13) | 932.2 | 12.00% | |||
| Sony (14) | 764 | 9.90% | |||
| Paramount (12) | 726.9 | 9.40% | |||
| Lionsgate (20) | 499.8 | 6.40% | |||
| Weinstein (19) | 437.2 | 5.70% | |||
| FilmDistrict (5) | 120.2 | 1.50% | |||
| Relativity (4) | 113 | 1.50% | |||
| Open Road (5) | 107.6 | 1.40% | |||
| Focus (8) | 77.2 | 1.00% | |||
| Sony Classics (15) | 55 | 0.70% | |||
| eOne/Seville (17) | 39.7 | 0.50% | |||
| Other * (238) | 223.9 | 2.90% | |||
| 7743.6 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
| Top Global Grossers (Jan. 1 – Sept. 5, 2013) | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
| Iron Man 3 | BV | 1,214,555,836 | |||
| Despicable Me 2 | Uni | 827,937,231 | |||
| Fast & Furious 6 | Uni | 787,960,700 | |||
| Monsters University | BV | 720,363,460 | |||
| Man of Steel | WB | 658,750,454 | |||
| World War Z | Par | 533,649,253 | |||
| The Croods | Fox | 516,569,660 | |||
| Oz the Great and Powerful | BV | 494,038,163 | |||
| Star Trek Into Darkness | Par | 463,812,278 | |||
| Pacific Rim | WB | 408,039,255 | |||
| G.I. Joe: Retaliation | Par | 374,141,049 | |||
| The Hangover Part III | WB | 360,880,112 | |||
| The Wolverine | Fox | 359,315,972 | |||
| Django Unchained * | Weinstein/Sony | 356,247,618 | |||
| The Great Gatsby | WB | 343,293,287 | |||
| Now You See Me | Lionsgate | 313,894,816 | |||
| A Good Day to Die Hard | Fox | 305,391,077 | |||
| Les Miserables * | Uni | 301,287,664 | |||
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey * | WB | 288,252,146 | |||
| Oblivion | Uni | 286,697,768 | |||
| Life of Pi * | Fox | 282,636,416 | |||
| The Smurfs 2 | Sony | 259,822,837 | |||
| Epic | Fox | 256,508,704 | |||
| The Conjuring | WB | 248,091,013 | |||
| After Earth | Sony | 245,601,392 | |||
| * does not include 2012 box office | |||||
