The Weekend Report

A Message on High        

It was a race but Non-Stop always held the lead and finished at the top of the heap with an opening estimated $30 million. That still left an impressive $26.5 million for the debut of Son of God.

The frame also featured several limited newcomers including the suspenseful Repentance that bowed to $524,000 at 152 venues. 3-D Russian war epic Stalingrad opened at 308 IMAX battlegrounds to a disappointing $492,000 while Bollywood’s Shaadi Ke Side Effects grossed $578,000 from 109 engagements. Also in the niches Miraculum appeared to cull from the weekend’s top grosser with its inspirational tale of airline crash survivors and grossed $94,300 at 39 sites in Québec.

The best of the exclusive newcomers included France’s Oscar animation nominee Ernest & Celestine in a solo L.A. flight of $15,500 and India’s acclaimed Lunchbox that grossed $48,700 from three screens. The genre yarn The Bag Man also got an OK start of $28,200 from two playdates.

The frame also had an interesting curiosity in the re-launch of Anchorman 2 in a cut with—according to the studio—763 new jokes (no claim on additional laughs). It did a respectable $1.3 million.

Weekend revenues climbed to roughly $130 million and a 14% bump from seven days ago. It was also 16% improved from 2013 when the bow of Jack the Giant Killer held top spot with $27.2 million.

Industry trackers generally gave the edge to Non-Stop though frankly seemed adrift about how to gauge the opening appeal of Son of God. The high flying tale of an air marshal pitting wits against a mysterious killer eight miles aloft seemed an ideal fit for the macho appeal of Liam Neeson and performed slightly better than anticipated. Studio exits polls identified a slight female tilt of 51% with 65% of the audience aged 25-years and old that was in keeping with the actor’s recent efforts.

While the on-going draw of faith-inspired films is unquestioned Son of God‘s gravitational pull was in question as it re-purposed the History Channel’s series The Bible (including excised scenes) and potentially its core audience. Tracking didn’t address those that were small screen habitués but strong quotients included heartland audiences as well as the Hispanic sector (200 engagements were Spanish-language DCPs). Overall the film skewed 62% female with 82% of the audience 25-years and older.

With the Oscars at hand,  contenders and wannabees fought for possibly the last drop of commercial juice. Apart from the new to the marketplace anime The Wind Rises the slate generally held firm or received a slight bump with moviegoers hoping to get a fresh insight for home and office pools. The exception was a sizeable 48% b.o. jump for Dallas Buyers Club.

And on a sad note the singular filmmaker Alain Resnais passed away at the age of 91 years. Just last week on my radio show, I cited his movie Last Year at Marienbad as the film that most changed my perception of cinema.

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