By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
The dust won’t settle until tomorrow but today’s estimates give the slightest of edges for bragging rights to the Melissa McCarthy comedy The Boss. Its weekend debut is $23.5 million while Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is sitting at $23.4 million. The only other wide opener, Hardcore Henry, ran down a disappointing $5 million.
In limited wide, offbeat drama Demolition bowed with a soft $1.1 million. In the niches, Hindi Sardar Gabbar Singh had a $461,000 weekend following a potent Thursday launch of $620,000. Meanwhile in Québec, Les Visiteurs: La Revolution opened day-and-date with France to an OK $84,000. The 1993 original remains the second biggest French hit on home turf.
Best of the exclusive bows was the U.S. indie thriller The Invitation that won best film at the prestigious Sitges festival last year. It grossed $53,400 from six sitdowns. Expansions this weekend included good response for slow rollouts of Everybody Wants Some!! and Miles Ahead and limp results for the ramped-up break out of Midnight Special.
Grosses for the frame topped $105 million, ebbing 20% from seven days earlier tally. It was a steeper 31% decline from 2015 when the second weekend of Furious 7 led with $59.6 million and top newcomer The Longest Ride took $13 million.
While The Boss wasn’t in the same league of Spy or The Heat, it was expected to provide strong competition for BvS with top end predictions of $20 million. Despite generally withering reviews its core audience dined on the broad comedy and out-performed expatiations. The film tilted 67% female with 41% of the audience aged between 17 and 34-years old; an additional 49% were aged 35-years and older.
The Boss grossed an additional $1 million from eight secondary foreign territories including Serbia, Hungary and Lebanon. But the big noise overseas (apart from the continuing push of Batman v Superman) were advance debuts of The Jungle Book and The Huntsman: Winter’s War. The mixed media version of the Kipling classics bowed in 12 territories for better than the bear necessities of $29 million. Its $7.6 million debut in India was the second biggest bow ever for a non-local movie with Russia providing a potent $6 million gross. The Huntsman got a head start in 18 overseas locales including top spots in the UK, Mexico and Hong Kong and an overall estimate of $20 million.
Stateside, first-person POV Hardcore Henry fell short of tracking that anticipated an $8-$10 million start. Targeted at the gamer crowd with its offbeat visual sensibility it tilted 76% male with its core 17-to-34-year old demographic comprising 67% of the audience.
| Weekend (estimates) April 8 – 10, 2016 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| The Boss | Uni | 23.5 (6,740) | NEW | 3480 | 23.5 |
| Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | WB | 23.4 (5,700) | -54% | 4102 | 296.6 |
| Zootopia | BV | 14.4 (4,190) | -25% | 3444 | 296.1 |
| My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 | Uni | 6.4 (2,110) | -43% | 3027 | 46.7 |
| Hardcore Henry | STX | 5.0 (1,670) | NEW | 3015 | 5 |
| Miracles from Heaven | Sony | 4.8 (1,720) | -34% | 2783 | 53.8 |
| God’s Not Dead 2 | Pure Flix | 4.0 (1,670) | -48% | 2379 | 13.8 |
| Allegiant | Lionsgate | 3.6 (1,430) | -38% | 2503 | 61.8 |
| Eye in the Sky | Bleecker/eOne | 2.9 (2,640) | -28% | 1089 | 10.5 |
| 10 Cloverfield Lane | Par | 2.9 (1,550) | -36% | 1886 | 67.9 |
| Deadpool | Fox | 2.1 (1,440) | -40% | 1435 | 358.4 |
| Meet the Blacks | FreeStyle | 2.1 (2,100) | -48% | 1007 | 7.4 |
| Hello, My Name is Doris | Roadside Attractions | 1.6 (1,600) | -34% | 979 | 9.3 |
| Demolition | Fox Searchlight | 1.1 (1,310) | NEW | 854 | 1.1 |
| Midnight Special | WB | 1.1 (2,310) | 107% | 493 | 2.3 |
| London Has Fallen | Focus/VVS | .89 (970) | -53% | 914 | 60.7 |
| Everybody Wants Some!! | Par | .51 (8,130) | 64% | 63 | 0.98 |
| Kung Fu Panda 3 | Fox | .46 (1,360) | -11% | 341 | 141 |
| Sardar Gabbar Singh | Eros | .46 (2,880) | NEW | 160 | 1.1 |
| Star Wars: The Force Awakens | BV | .36 (1,050) | -47% | 346 | 935.5 |
| I Saw the Light | Sony Classics | .30 (540) | -56% | 548 | 1.3 |
| Whiskey Tango Foxtrot | Par | .25 (890) | -52% | 277 | 22.7 |
| Chongqing Hot Pot | China Lion | .23 (5,040) | 15% | 46 | 0.52 |
| The Revenant | Fox | .23 (800) | -23% | 286 | 183 |
| Miles Ahead | Sony Classics | .22 (8,760) | 91% | 25 | 0.37 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $100.30 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -31% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -20% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Born to Be Blue | IFC/eOne | .11 (2,060) | 5% | 52 | 0.44 |
| Saturday’s Warrior | Purdie | .10 (3,680) | 7% | 28 | 0.3 |
| The Lady in the Van | Sony Classics | 93,600 (900) | -33% | 104 | 9.6 |
| Les Visiteurs: La Revolution | A-Z Films | 84,200 (2,050) | 42 | 0.08 | |
| Marguerite | Cohen Media | 68,700 (1,860) | -7% | 37 | 0.33 |
| The Invitation | Drafthouse | 53,400 (8,900) | 6 | 0.05 | |
| Embrace of the Serpent | Oscillosope/Raven | 49,300 (1,300) | -40% | 38 | 1.2 |
| High Strung | Paladin | 41,500 (420) | 100 | 0.04 | |
| Mr. Right | Focus | 24,300 (690) | 35 | 0.02 | |
| Louder Than Bombs | Orchard | 19,300 (4,820) | 4 | 0.02 | |
| Saka: The Martyrs of Nankana Sahib | Hot Ice | 14,100 (880) | 16 | 0.01 | |
| Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt | Zeitgeist | 11,400 (11,400) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| One More Time | Starz | 9,100 (450) | 20 | 0.01 | |
| Neon Bull | Kino | 6,300 (6,300) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| The Saver | EyeSteel | 4,100 (1,370) | 3 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – April 7, 2016) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| 20th Century Fox (10) | 760.5 | 25.50% | |||
| Buena Vista (5) | 606.6 | 20.30% | |||
| Warner Bros. (8) | 347.7 | 11.70% | |||
| Paramount (8) | 305.3 | 10.20% | |||
| Universal (7) | 201.9 | 6.80% | |||
| Lionsgate (10) | 181.5 | 6.10% | |||
| Sony (11) | 162.8 | 5.50% | |||
| Focus (5) | 112.1 | 3.80% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (6) | 51.5 | 1.70% | |||
| Open Road (3) | 40.4 | 1.30% | |||
| STX (2) | 34 | 1.10% | |||
| A24 (4) | 32.3 | 1.10% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (2) | 15.2 | 0.50% | |||
| Other * (122) | 131.7 | 4.40% | |||
| 2809 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
