MCN Weekend Archive for January, 2015
Friday Box Office Estimates

American Sniper showed traditional fatigue yesterday, dropping a more normal 45% from the previous Friday. Still, as the film’s weekends have gone so well so far, it will pass $250 million domestic Sunday. Three wide release newcomers (Project Almanac, Black or White, and The Loft) will fail to reach as much as $10 million. In limited release, the “Game of Thrones “special IMAX release drew about $3300 per screen and showings of Oscar-nominated shorts will extend to almost $200k this weekend.
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American Sniper continued to hold sway at the box office with an estimated weekend gross of $63.9 million. Trailing in second place was the debut of the sexual suspenser The Boy Next Door with $15 million. Two other titles opened nationally to close to D.O.A. results. The not so madcap comedy Mordecai bowed with $4.1 million and the not terribly animated Strange Music (“from the mind of George Lucas”) eked out $5.5 million.
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American Sniper dropped a little bit more than some projections expected, but will still have a remarkable second weekend and will be in range of $200 million by weekend’s end (a little under or over). The much-abused The Boy Next Door will do a little less than last weekend’s The Wedding Ringer, which is off 53% Friday-to-Friday. And in carwreck mode are both Johnny “Time For A New Schtick” Depp’s Mortdecai and George Lucas’ Lucasfilm swan song, Strange Magic.
Read the full article »The Weekend Report (4-day numbers)

American Sniper is the big story at the box office, the #1 drama opening in movie history. Paddington and The Wedding Ringer each had $24m-$25m four-day openings. And The Imitation Game cracked $50 million.
Read the full article »The Weekend Report (3-Day)

The national release of American Sniper was better than a bullseye with a record-breaking estimate of $89.3 million (all figures reflect 3-day box office) that represented roughly 45% of session box office. The Martin Luther King holiday frame saw three other national releases including strong returns of $20.9 million for the urban comedy The Wedding Ringer and $19 million for the beloved kid-lit bear Paddington. Conversely there was little threat from the hack attack Blackhat , which bowed to $4 million.
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Clint’s bullseye: a $30 million opening day; Kevin Hart comes up relatively short at $6.9 million; Paddington‘s accepted by a new society at $4.6 million, while Liam Neeson’s Taken another $4.3 million for a cume of $53.1 million. Selma hits $20 million while Blackhat deciphers only $1.8 million at eighth.
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The third installment of unlikely franchise Taken easily led weekend moviegoing with an estimated debut gross of $40.1 million. Trailing in second spot was the national expansion of Selma with $11.1 million. Also expanding from its Oscar qualifying run was Paul Thomas Anderson’s post-Altman Pynchon adaptation, the neo-noir Inherent Vice , which buzzed $2.8 million from 645 screens.
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For all the negativity around Taken 3, it will still open better than the original in 2008, though not quite as well as the sequel (2012)… which could still be enough to become the biggest opening ever in January (though it will probably fall short by a few million). Selma opens nicely, though not overwhelmingly. There aren’t a lot of good comparable releases with an awards push, a hold on limited screens into January, and then the big expansion. Selma continues to be on its own path, approaching $11 million for the weekend.
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The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies remained a hard habit to break as it retained the top spot in weekend movie going with an estimated $21.8 million. Christmas Day openers Into the Woods and Unbroken followed respectively with $18.8 million and $18.3 million and the session’s sole newcomer The Woman in Black: Angel of Death ranked fourth with $15 million. Exclusive newcomers included 2014’s last award’s contender A Most Violent Year with a potent opening weekend of $165,000 at four venues and Chinese blockbuster The Taking of Tiger Mountain with a sturdy $50,800 from seven screens. Box office revenues for the frame exceeded $155 million and ebbed from last weekend’s tally by 26%. It was however 11% improved from 2014 when Frozen inched ahead of newcomer Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones with $19.6 million to $18.3 million.
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The final Hobbit film remains firmly ensconced in the top slot for another weekend. The Woman in Black 2 , following up on the Daniel Radcliffe surprise hit from CBS Films in 2012, opens just about 10% behind the first without Mr. Potter front and center. Into The Woods and Unbroken remain neck-and-neck as they have ever since Christmas Day. And A Most Violent Year ‘s first weekend appearance is chasing $50k per-screen on four.
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