MCN Weekend Archive for July, 2014
The Weekend Report

Lucy had the brains and the brawn to lead weekend box office with an estimated debut of $44 million. That left that other new muscleman Hercules in the bridesmaid slot with $29 million. The third national release—Rob Reiner’s senior rom-com And So It Goes—took $4.4 million.
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The power of Scarlett Johansson’s brain on drugs outdoes The Rock’s muscles. And FreeStyle Entertainment takes out a Michael Douglas/Diane Keaton without telling anybody, while Woody #45 opens modestly.
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If any actors should have been able to interest audiences in the concept of artificial intelligence forwarded in Transcendence, it was Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman.
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Simple simian says Dawn of the Planet of the Apes rules again with an estimated $35.8 million. However, a trio of new wide releases lined up right behind it. Best of the bunch was the shocker sequel The Purge: Anarchy that bowed to $28.3 million. Both the animated sequel Planes: Fire & Rescue and romcom Sex Tape entered below expectations with respective grosses of $17.9 million and $14.9 million.
On the alternative side Begin Again added 363 screens and plateaued. The question now is just how far can Boyhood penetrate into the marketplace. Its weekend gross of $1.2 million from 34 screens in exclusive engagements in top urban markets is truly impressive. Nonetheless it will need sustained TLC and vigorous promotion to assure its embrace in second and third tier centers in order to reach a broad audience and secure its position as an early awards contender.
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The Purge: Anarchy leads on Friday, but it’s down about 23% from opening day of the first high-concept, low-budget thriller. If it continues on this trajectory, it will gross about $26m for the weekend and still be very profitable. But don’t look elsewhere or you may think that ending the weekend as the #2 film is some sort of tragedy. Also opening, Sex Tape, which looks like Cameron Diaz’s weakest comedy opening since 2005/2006. The film is, literally, in the mid-summer Friends With Benefits slot… a film that also underperformed in spite of some hot talent. And Planes 2 opens softer than Planes, which was basically an up-converted direct-to-DVD spin-off of Cars. Of course, given that this is a film for young kids, it could still end up with a $20m weekend and a gross not too dissimilar to the first release, given the paucity of kids’ films in the market.
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Like Father Like Son, Face of Love, Vinyl, TV Westerns, sxtape, Southern Comfort, WWI, D-Day and more.
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The Apes rise, the Transformers drop but are far from extinction, Begin Again expands nicely, and Boyhood does awards-season opening numbers in July with an estimated $74,000 on 5 screens.
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The Apes come out swinging, though on the second tier of summer hit openings. Transformers, which is still the biggest opening day of 2014, will become the quickest film to $200 million today, although Cap 2 was holding better in its third weekend. And Boyhoodopens very strong on just 5 screens, projecting to over $50k per, which would make it the biggest exclusive opening of the year after The Grand Budapest Hotel.
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Jodorowsky’s Dune, Le Week-End, Cannabis Kid, Rigor Mortis, Pretty One, Watermark, POWs, Vicious, Endeavor and more.
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There was a lot to celebrate during the Independence holiday span … but it wasn’t at the multiplex. Weekend business hit its lowest point for the period in the past decade. Leading the pack for its second weekend was Transformers: Age of Extinction with an estimated $36.2 million during the three-day skirmish. Raucous comedy Tammy was second and best of a trio of newcomers with $21.2 million. The other freshmen were exorcism chiller Deliver Us from Evil, which grossed $9.5 million and family-targeted Earth to Echo all that E.T.-ish at $8.2 million.
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The Unknown Known, Lunchbox, Cannibal Holocaust, Final Terror, Operation Petticoat, Helix and more.
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