By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
There Will Be Flood
Noah provided a 6.3 tremor at the box office that translated into an estimated $44.2 million debut. Otherwise there wasn’t a deluge among new openers. The Governator was barely electable in Sabotage that bowed to $5.2 million and limited wide launch of the biopic on union organizer Cesar Chavez bore a modest crop of $3 million.
There were a couple of bright spots among incoming exclusives. Nonfiction Finding Vivian Maier clicked with $78,100 on six and the Indonesian-set The Raid 2 provided a potent $174,000 onslaught from seven locations.
In the niches Telugu Legend had an OK bow of $327,000 at 69 venues. Also fair was the $68,000 debut of local tall poppy Xavier Dolan’s fourth film, Tom à la ferme, in Québec.
Session box office revenues generated slightly better than $145 million for a slight 2% improvement from the prior weekend and a comparably slim 2% downturn from 2013. A year ago the first weekend of G.I. Joe: Retaliation led the field with $40.5 million tally with The Croods in second with $26.7 million.
Awash in alleged controversy, Noah nonetheless brought in the faithful as well as religious skeptics. Domestically, the film’s opening weekend audience was evenly split between the sexes with 74% of the crowd aged 25-years and older.
Internationally, Noah opened in Mexico and South Korea a week ago to excellent business. The current weekend count saw the addition of 18 territories that included a potent $17.2 million bow in Russia and a total estimated gross of $33.6 million.
The biggest noise overseas belonged to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which stepped out a week ahead of its North American bow in 32 countries with approximately $75 million. Early estimates have South Korea and the UK vying for bragging rights with respective estimates of $10.9 million and $10.7 million.
He may be back, but since leaving elected office Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to find the commercial footing he enjoyed back in the twentieth century. Sabotage, a tale of a DEA squad targeted by drug lords appears to be another programmer doomed to a quick theatrical hasta la vista.
The session also saw an excellent expansion for The Grand Budapest Hotel and a passable result for Bad Words. Last weekend’s freshmen class had generally good holds with the inspirational God’s Not Dead proving the most resilient of a trio that also included Divergent and Muppets Most Wanted.
This past weekend, Frozen ascended to a $1 billion plus global box office—a first for an animated feature—and now ranks as Disney’s biggest grossing non-live-action picture.
Weekend (estimates) March 28 – 30, 2014 | |||||
Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
Noah | Par | 44.2 (12,380) | NEW | 3567 | 44.2 |
Divergent | Lionsgate | 27.1 (6,880) | -50% | 3936 | 95.8 |
Muppets Most Wanted | BV | 11.4 (3,580) | -33% | 3194 | 33.3 |
Mr. Peabody & Sherman | Fox | 9.5 (2,890) | -19% | 3299 | 94.9 |
The Grand Budapest Hotel | Fox Searchlight | 8.8 (9,020) | 30% | 977 | 24.4 |
God’s Not Dead | FreeStyle | 8.4 (7,240) | -9% | 1164 | 21.4 |
Sabotage | Open Road | 5.2 (2,100) | NEW | 2486 | 5.2 |
Need for Speed | BV | 4.3 (1,590) | -46% | 2705 | 37.7 |
300: Rise of an Empire | WB | 4.2 (1,630) | -50% | 2601 | 101.1 |
Non-Stop | Uni | 4.1 (1,620) | -36% | 2515 | 85.2 |
The Lego Movie | WB | 3.1 (1,540) | -26% | 2001 | 248.3 |
Cesar Chavez | Lionsgate | 3.0 (4,550) | NEW | 664 | 3 |
Bad Words | Focus | 2.6 (3,120) | 421% | 842 | 3.6 |
The Single Moms Club | Lionsgate | 1.1 (1,000) | -63% | 1139 | 15 |
Son of God | Fox | 1.1 (850) | -60% | 1277 | 57.9 |
The Monuments Men | Sony | .44 (880) | -54% | 501 | 76.6 |
Frozen | BV | .35 (900) | -53% | 387 | 398.4 |
Ride Along | Uni | .34 (940) | -47% | 360 | 133.7 |
Legend | 14 Reels | .33 (4,740) | NEW | 69 | 0.33 |
The Nut Job | Open Road/eOne | .32 (1,090) | -5% | 294 | 63.1 |
The Lunchbox | Sony Classics | .31 (4,210) | 67% | 73 | 0.9 |
Queen | Viva | .22 (3,440) | -23% | 64 | 1.2 |
Le Weekend | Music Box | .22 (4,540) | 60% | 48 | 0.47 |
3 Days to Kill | Relativity | .21 (610) | -65% | 340 | 30.2 |
The Raid 2 | Sony Classics | .17 (24,880) | NEW | 7 | 0.17 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $138.10 | ||||
% Change (Last Year) | -2% | ||||
% Change (Last Week) | 2% | ||||
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 | Magnolia | .11 (3,530) | -29% | 32 | 0.35 |
Tim’s Vermeer | Sony Classics | 93,600 (990) | -40% | 94 | 1.4 |
Finding Vivian Maier | IFC | 78,100 (13,020) | 6 | 0.08 | |
Particle Fever | Abramorama | 71,400 (2,230) | -10% | 32 | 0.44 |
Tom à la ferme | Seville | 68,700 (3,820) | 18 | 0.07 | |
The Great Beauty | Janus/Mongrel | 53,500 (1,570) | -22% | 34 | 3.5 |
Jodorowsky’s Dune | Sony Classics | 34,200 (4,890) | -5% | 7 | 0.09 |
Mistaken for Strangers | Abramorama | 26,400 (4,400) | 6 | 0.03 | |
Breathe In | Cinema Guild | 14,300 (790) | 18 | 0.01 | |
Dishkiyaoon | Eros | 8,100 (7360) | 11 | 0.01 | |
Fiston | Remstar | 7,900 (1,310) | 6 | 0.01 | |
Greencard Warriors | New World | 3,500 (1,170) | 3 | 0.01 | |
Boys of Abu Ghraib | Vertical | 2,300 (290) | 8 | 0.01 | |
Domestic Market Share (January 1 – March 27, 2014) | |||||
Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Mrkt Share | |||
Warner Bros. (8) | 469.6 | 20.70% | |||
Universal (8) | 372.1 | 16.40% | |||
Sony (8) | 280.8 | 12.40% | |||
Buena Vista (7) | 238.8 | 10.50% | |||
Paramount (7) | 220.8 | 9.70% | |||
20th Century Fox (7) | 198.2 | 8.80% | |||
Lionsgate (9) | 159.6 | 7.00% | |||
Weinstein Co. (7) | 68.8 | 3.00% | |||
Open Road (3) | 58.3 | 2.60% | |||
Fox Searchlight (3) | 34.1 | 1.50% | |||
Focus (3) | 31.9 | 1.40% | |||
Relativity (3) | 31.4 | 1.40% | |||
eOne/Seville (9) | 28.6 | 1.30% | |||
FreeStyle (2) | 13.1 | 0.60% | |||
CBS (2) | 10.9 | 0.50% | |||
Other * (82) | 50.6 | 2.20% | |||
2267.6 | 100% | ||||
* none greater than 0.4% | |||||
Top Global Grossers (January 1 – March 27, 2014) | |||||
Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
Frozen * | BV | 502,573,595 | |||
The Lego Movie | WB | 397,405,057 | |||
The Wolf of Wall Street * | Par | 335,848,166 | |||
300: Rise of an Empire | WB | 299,217,068 | |||
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug * | WB | 276,077,451 | |||
RoboCop | Sony | 243,693,751 | |||
Mr. Peabody & Sherman | Fox | 192,552,441 | |||
The Monkey King | Global Star | 180,124,680 | |||
American Hustle * | Sony/eOne; Panorama | 174,539,304 | |||
Non-Stop | Uni | 171,397,017 | |||
Lone Survivor | Uni/eOne; Foresight | 149,613,885 | |||
Ride Along | Uni | 147,164,217 | |||
Need for Speed | BV | 140,766,216 | |||
The Monuments Men | Sony; Fox | 140,409,284 | |||
12 Years a Slave * | Fox Searchlight | 135,738,586 | |||
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | Par | 134,113,605 | |||
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty * | Fox | 112,802,927 | |||
Dad, Where Are You Going? | Enlight | 112,464,023 | |||
47 Ronin * | Uni | 98,369,322 | |||
The Man from Macau | Mega-Vision | 95,075,161 | |||
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones | Par | 88,935,785 | |||
Pompeii | Sony/eOne; Lionsgate | 86,833,282 | |||
Divergent | Lionsgate | 74,120,952 | |||
I, Frankenstein | Lionsgate | 73,768,830 | |||
August: Osage County | Weinstein Co. | 70,312,768 | |||
* does not include 2013 box office |