Friday Box Office Estimates

Home lands in the top third of DreamWorks Animation openings, right in the range of last summer’s How To Train Your Dragon 2, prompting a much-needed sigh of relief for DWA and Fox marketing. Get Hard opens to a number remarkably close to another Will Ferrell late-March opening, Blades of Fire, which also happens to be one of his Top Five career openers as a lead. And, finally, some life on the arthouse scene, as Radius’ decision to withdraw It Follows from the day-n-date VOD market will pay off with a $4m+ weekend that would not have happened with day-n-date. And Noah Baumbach’s While We Are Young is looking at a $40K+ per-screen on four.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Insurgent brings us the second weekend in a row with a $20 million Friday. It’s not quite Cinderella but then, who is? Speaking of Cindy, she takes a reasonable hit, but nothing else in the Top 10 manages to gross even $2 million on Friday, including the opening day of The Gunman. At the arthouse, only Al Pacino as Danny Collins manages over $3k per screen on opening day.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Cinderella slips into a comfortable $22.3 million, while a gloomy Liam Neeson only threatens $2.8 million with Run All Night.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Chappie leads crappy. But this will all change again next weekend as the fairy godmother sprinkles box office fairy dust around. Focus drops 55% vs last Friday, despite its fairly soft opening.

The hero of the weekend is The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which opened wide and will eclipse the best-ever weekend for the the original ($6.4 million) as a result.

Unfinished Business charts a big dip in the Vince Vaughn franchise. This will be his worst wide opening ever, which follows directly on the heels of the previous owner of that inauspicious honor, Delivery Man. Time to go rebuild in supporting roles, as he did with Mr. & Mrs. Smith.