By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
The antic comedy Neighbors debuted at the top with an estimated $51 million tally. That didn’t leave a lot for the session’s two other freshmen. Faith-based family comedy Moms’ Night Out slotted in position seven with $4.1 million while animated family yarn Legends of Oz was right behind with $3.7 million.
There was considerable heat generated from other exclusive openings including fourth generation Coppola Gia with generational drama Palo Alto, which grossed $76,300 at four venues. Also strong was the nutritional documentary Fed Up that digested $126,000 from 19 diners and keeping with the foodie theme there was Chef gorging $198,000 from a mere six food truck.
Overall revenues for the frame approached $140 million for a 12% dip from seven days back. It was also 14% off the 2013 session when the second weekend of Iron Man 3 deposited $72.5 million and newcomer The Great Gatsby opened to $50.1 million.
The knockabout comedy Neighbors was expected to be competitive with The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s sophomore session. But there were a lot of ifs in what was supposed to be a nose-to-nose horse race starting with whether the webslinger would hold with no more than a 60% slide (it did). In that scenario Neighbors was pegged the bridesmaid with high end estimates of $35 million.
Neighbors was off to a solid start with $2.7 million from Thursday previews but the picture became clear when Saturday estimates showed the Seth Rogen-Zac Efron vehicle nearly doubling (with previews) the costumed crimefighter’s box office. It surprised the studio landing second (behind Ted) among biggest-ever-opening R-rated comedies. A spokesperson could only offer that a paucity for raunchy comedy contributed to its better than expected results. The opening audience was 53% female with again 53% of viewers aged 25-years and older.
The film previewed a week ago in Australia where it out-grossed the competition and added an equally unexpected $34 million estimate this weekend in 29 primarily European territories including the UK and Germany.
The film’s additionally unexpected female tilt put the kibosh on the counter-programmed Moms’ Night Out.
On the alternative side Belle, Locke and Fading Gigolo continued to add playdates and do better than hold their own.
| Weekend (estimates) May 9 – 11, 2014 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| Neighbors | Uni | 51.0 (15,550) | NEW | 3279 | 51 |
| The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | Sony | 37.1 (8,580) | -59% | 4324 | 147.8 |
| The Other Woman | Fox | 9.3 (2,810) | -36% | 3306 | 61.8 |
| Heaven is for Real | Sony | 6.4 (2,110) | -25% | 3048 | 74.7 |
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier | BV | 5.6 (2,060) | -28% | 2701 | 245 |
| Rio 2 | Fox | 5.1 (1,730) | -34% | 2974 | 113.2 |
| Moms’ Night Out | Sony | 4.1 (3,890) | NEW | 1044 | 4.1 |
| Legends of Oz | FreeStyle | 3.7 (1,480) | NEW | 2525 | 3.7 |
| Divergent | Lionsgate | 1.6 (1,320) | -25% | 1233 | 144.9 |
| Brick Mansions | Reliance/VVS | 1.6 (800) | -58% | 1954 | 18.4 |
| The Grand Budapest Hotel | Fox Searchlight | 1.5 (1,970) | -15% | 770 | 53.8 |
| God’s Not Dead | FreeStyle | 1.2 (1,190) | -33% | 1000 | 57.5 |
| Bears | BV | 1.0 (800) | -42% | 1243 | 16 |
| Draft Day | Lionsgate | .79 (960) | -43% | 820 | 27.7 |
| The Quiet Ones | Lionsgate | .76 (670) | -62% | 1133 | 8 |
| Fading Gigolo | Millennium | .75 (2,210) | 55% | 340 | 22 |
| The Lego Movie | WB | .50 (1,240) | 118% | 401 | 253.7 |
| Belle | Searchlight | .46 (10,310) | 334% | 45 | 0.6 |
| The Railway Man | Weinstein Co. | .44 (2,430) | -13% | 181 | 2.3 |
| Noah | Par | .42 (880) | -53% | 477 | 99.8 |
| Transcendence | WB | .32 (630) | -72% | 515 | 22.2 |
| Non-Stop | Uni | .32 (1,370) | 108% | 232 | 91.1 |
| Mr. Peabody & Sherman | Fox | .32 (890) | -21% | 357 | 108.9 |
| A Haunted House 2 | Open Road/VVS | .31 (590) | -71% | 526 | 16.8 |
| Lunchbox | Sony Classics | .24 (1,590) | -8% | 153 | 3.4 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $132.00 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -14% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -12% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Locke | A24 | .21 (3,270) | 56% | 64 | 0.5 |
| Chef | Open Road | .20 (33,020) | 6 | 0.2 | |
| Only Lovers Left Alive | Sony Classics | .19 (2,080) | -1% | 92 | 1.1 |
| Under the Skin | A24 | .13 (1,580) | -24% | 82 | 2.1 |
| Fed Up | Weinstein Co. | .13 (6,640) | 19 | 0.13 | |
| Finding Vivian Maier | IFC | .11 (1,380) | -25% | 83 | 1.2 |
| Ida | Music Box | .10 (12,520) | 81% | 8 | 0.19 |
| Palo Alto | TriBeCa | 76,300 (19,070) | 4 | 0.08 | |
| The German Doctor | IDP | 68,500 (1,900) | 55% | 36 | 0.18 |
| Un été en Provence | Metropole | 31,200 (1,560) | 20 | 0.03 | |
| The Hornet’s Nest | FreeStyle | 27,100 (6,770) | 4 | 0.03 | |
| Tarzan | Lions Gate | 22,800 (580) | 39 | 0.02 | |
| God’s Pocket | IFC | 21,600 (7,200) | 3 | 0.02 | |
| Aberdeen | Asia Film | 16,400 (1,640) | 10 | 0.02 | |
| The Double | Magnolia | 14,300 (7,150) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| The Devil’s Knot | Image Ent. | 7,700 (770) | 10 | 0.01 | |
| Broken | CJ | 7,500 (7,500) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Stage Fright | Magnolia | 2,700 (450) | 6 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – May 8, 2014) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Mrkt Share | |||
| Buena Vista (9) | 533.7 | 15.70% | |||
| Warner Bros. (10) | 511.8 | 15.00% | |||
| Sony (10) | 463.5 | 13.60% | |||
| Universal (9) | 386.2 | 11.40% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (9) | 384.9 | 11.30% | |||
| Paramount (8) | 320.6 | 9.40% | |||
| Lionsgate (13) | 276.8 | 8.10% | |||
| Open Road (5) | 86.4 | 2.50% | |||
| Relativity (5) | 71.9 | 2.10% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (5) | 71.7 | 2.10% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (10) | 71.6 | 2.10% | |||
| FreeStyle (4) | 56.8 | 1.70% | |||
| Focus (5) | 39.1 | 1.20% | |||
| eOne/Seville (12) | 32.1 | 1.00% | |||
| Other * (125) | 94.9 | 2.80% | |||
| 3402 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
| Top Domestic Grossers (January 1 – May 8, 2014) * | |||||
| The Lego Movie | WB | 253,178,106 | |||
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier | BV | 239,377,745 | |||
| Divergent | Lionsgate | 143,323,919 | |||
| Frozen * | BV | 137,292,838 | |||
| Ride Along | Uni | 134,644,485 | |||
| Lone Survivor | Uni/eOne | 125,026,404 | |||
| The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | Sony | 110,700,722 | |||
| Mr. Peabody & Sherman | Fox | 108,620,691 | |||
| Rio 2 | Fox | 108,040,244 | |||
| 300: Rise of an Empire | WB | 106,091,502 | |||
| Noah | Par | 99,375,542 | |||
| Non-Stop | Uni | 90,775,935 | |||
| American Hustle * | Sony/eOne | 82,661,672 | |||
| The Monuments Men | Sony | 77,873,921 | |||
| The Wolf of Wall Street * | Par | 75,490,253 | |||
| Heaven is for Real | Sony | 68,220,039 | |||
| The Nut Job | Open Road/eOne | 64,251,541 | |||
| Son of God | Fox | 59,646,236 | |||
| RoboCop | Sony | 58,350,837 | |||
| The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug * | WB | 56,821,026 | |||
| * does not include 2013 box office |
