By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
Despite considerable incoming heat (or because of it) The Lego Movie retained top spot during the Presidents’ Day holiday session with an estimated $48.9 million (all figures reflect the 3-day portion of the session).
The new crew included a potent $26.7 million start for a contemporized version of About Last Night in second spot; fair returns of $20.5 million for a re-engineered RoboCop and disappointment for a new embrace of 1981’s Endless Love and the weekend’s sole screen original Winter’s Tale with respective openers of $13.4 million and $7.5 million.
The new Bollywood entry Gunday was off to OK start of $512,000 at 159 venues and among exclusive debuts the Chinese import Beijing Love Story registered the best response with a $133,000 from a modest nine-screen bow.
Weekend revenues generated about $179 million (projected $210 million for four-day portion) for an impressive 16% uptick from the immediate prior session. It was also 6% improved from 2013 when the launch of A Good Day to Die Hard opened to $24.8 million and Identity Thief edged out freshman Safe Haven with a $23.7 million box office.
After a lull in its release schedule Sony opened two new titles (following on last weekend’s The Monuments Men) to albeit markedly different target audiences. About Last Night, loosely based on an early David Mamet play, was a movie hit back in 1986 with a Brat Pack cast and the new urbanized view looks to repeat that success. Studio exit polls revealed an opening crowd decidedly female with 63% of viewers and 57% aged 30-years and older.
The original RoboCop surfaced in 1987 and a quarter century later, the future law enforcement officer proved to be more brutal in an increasingly grimmer tomorrow. The film got a Wednesday jump start on the competition and entered the weekend with $4.75 million advance. Unsurprisingly it skewed male with 62% of the crowd but attracted an especially older crowd with 64% of buyers aged 25-years and older.
The original Endless Love solidified Brooke Shield’s popularity (and provided Tom Cruise with an early flashy turn) but won’t see a comparable result for Gabriella Wilde. The youthful romance drew in a lopsided 80% female audience with 76% aged 25-years and younger.
The supernatural love story Winter’s Tale got lost in the weekend mix. Its poor performance shouldn’t be attributed specifically to an audience desire to see the familiar. Reviews for the yarn were largely dismissive.
Weekend (estimates) February 14 – 16, 2014 | |||||
Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
The Lego Movie | WB | 48.9 (12,950) | -29% | 3775 | 129.2 |
About Last Night | Sony | 26.7 (11,840) | NEW | 2253 | 26.7 |
RoboCop | Sony | 20.5 (6.070) | NEW | 3372 | 25.4 |
The Monuments Men | Sony | 15.1 (4,890) | -32% | 3083 | 43.7 |
Endless Love | Uni | 13.4 (4,620) | NEW | 2896 | 13.4 |
Ride Along | Uni | 8.7 (3,470) | -9% | 2517 | 116.1 |
Winter’s Tale | WB | 7.5 (2,540) | NEW | 2965 | 7.5 |
Frozen | BV | 5.9 (2,820) | -14% | 2101 | 376.1 |
Lone Survivor | Uni/eOne | 4.1 (2,020) | -27% | 2013 | 118.4 |
That Awkward Moment | Focus/VVS | 3.4 (1,760) | -35% | 1922 | 21.4 |
American Hustle | Sony/eOne | 2.5 (2.300) | -20% | 1072 | 141.5 |
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | Par | 2.3 (1,790) | -35% | 1278 | 47.7 |
Vampire Academy | Weinstein Co. | 1.9 (710) | -52% | 2676 | 6.6 |
The Nut Job | Open Road/eOne | 1.8 (940) | -52% | 1918 | 57.6 |
The Wolf of Wall Street | Par | 1.8 (2,450) | -29% | 751 | 110.6 |
Philomena | Weinstein Co, | 1.4 (1,160) | 78% | 1225 | 30.5 |
Labor Day | Par | 1.3 (760) | -60% | 1664 | 12.5 |
Gravity | WB | 1.0 (2,760) | -41% | 355 | 267.9 |
August Osage County | Weinstein Co. | .83 (820) | -44% | 1010 | 35.7 |
Her | WB | .59 (2,320) | -19% | 255 | 23.3 |
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | Lionsgate | .53 (1,640) | -19% | 326 | 423.1 |
12 Years a Slave | Fox Searchlight | .53 (1,370) | -35% | 386 | 48.2 |
Gunday | Yash Raj | .51 (3,220) | NEW | 159 | 0.51 |
Nebraska | Par | .51 (1,560) | -28% | 324 | 15.8 |
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug | WB | .50 (1,750) | -27% | 285 | 256.1 |
Dallas Buyers Club | Focus/Mongrel | .40 (1,780) | -35% | 223 | 24.3 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $172.20 | ||||
% Change (Last Year) | 6% | ||||
% Change (Last Week) | 16% | ||||
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
Gloria | Roadside | .30 (3,070) | 20% | 97 | 0.94 |
The Great Beauty | Janus/Mongrel | .14 (1,920) | -8% | 75 | 2.4 |
Beijing Love Story | China Lion | .13 (14,790) | 9 | 0.13 | |
The Attorney | Well Go | .11 (4,450) | -48% | 25 | 0.41 |
The Past | Sony Classics | .10 (1,250) | -7% | 77 | 1 |
Tim’s Vermeer | Sony Classics | 54,100 (4,510) | 39% | 12 | 0.2 |
Girl on a Bicycle | Monterey | 33,800 (820) | 41 | 0.03 | |
Idhu Kathirvelan Kadhal | ATMUS | 27,900 (1,640) | 17 | 0.03 | |
The Invisible Woman | Sony Classics | 27,400 (620) | -54% | 44 | 1.04 |
Starting Over Again | ABS | 7,700 (7,700) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Venus Talk | CJ | 5,500 (5,500) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Date and Switch | Film Arcade | 4,600 (460) | 10 | 0.01 | |
Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer | Kino | 4,300 (2,150) | 2 | 0.01 | |
Domestic Market Share (January 1 – February 13, 2014) | |||||
Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Mrkt Share | |||
Universal (6) | 231.1 | 19.50% | |||
Paramount (7) | 200.6 | 17.00% | |||
Warner Bros. (5) | 180.6 | 15.30% | |||
Buena Vista (4) | 148.2 | 12.50% | |||
Sony (5) | 102.4 | 8.70% | |||
Lionsgate (6) | 71.8 | 6.10% | |||
Weinstein Co. (5) | 54.6 | 4.60% | |||
20th Century Fox (5) | 53.6 | 4.50% | |||
Open Road (3) | 52.4 | 4.40% | |||
Focus (2) | 22.5 | 1.90% | |||
eOne/Seville (5) | 20 | 1.70% | |||
CBS (2) | 10.5 | 0.90% | |||
Fox Searchlight (2) | 9.8 | 0.80% | |||
Other * (48) | 24.4 | 2.10% | |||
1182.5 | 100% | ||||
Top Domestic Grossers (January 1 – February 13, 2014) | |||||
Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
Lone Survivor | Uni/eOne | 114,137,838 | |||
Ride Along | Uni | 107,373,795 | |||
Frozen * | BV | 107,098,566 | |||
The Lego Movie | WB | 80,302,930 | |||
American Hustle * | Sony/eOne | 71,502,071 | |||
The Wolf of Wall Street * | Par | 67,297,197 | |||
The Nut Job | Open Road/eOne | 55,750,656 | |||
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug * | WB | 54,083,299 | |||
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | Par | 45,446,861 | |||
Saving Mr. Banks * | BV | 37,924,912 | |||
August: Osage County * | Weinstein | 34,627,788 | |||
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues * | Par | 34,314,662 | |||
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones | Par | 32,406,910 | |||
The Monuments Men | Sony | 28,668,667 | |||
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire * | Lionsgate | 27,049,114 | |||
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty * | Fox | 25,775,674 | |||
Her * | WB | 20,852,461 | |||
The Legend of Hercules | Lionsgate | 18,445,280 | |||
That Awkward Moment | Focus/VVS | 18,062,946 | |||
I, Frankenstein | Lionsgate | 17,864,878 | |||
* does not include 2013 box office |