By Sarah Sluis
Universal celebrated its highest opening gross, ever, with a release that didn't even occur during the "peak" summer and holiday weekends. Fast Five sped to first with $83.6 million, the highest opening weekend of the year. Theatre owners have been suffering through a terrible slump in recent months, so this influx of ticket buyers should help assuage concerns. The action sequel played well across all audiences, and its positive reviews should give the Vin Diesel/Paul Walker vehicle mileage in coming weeks.
Prom opened below expectations, finishing with just $5 million. Disney invested just $9 million in the movie's production, however, and it's sure to be a successful staple of Disney Channel programming in coming years. The audience was young and over 80% female, so it's possible some families opted for the more universally appealing Rio.
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil also disappointed in the blockbuster-dominated weekend, earning just $4.1 million. With two better-known CG toons in the top ten, Rio and Hop, it's no wonder this movie failed to spark to audiences. Rio enjoyed its perch at number two with a sub-50% drop and another $14.4 million. In its first post-Easter weekend, Hop fell precipitously, losing 79% of its audience to finish with $2.5 million.
Director Werner Herzog's latest documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, had an impressive $25,000 per-screen average on five screens. As one of the first in the indie/documentary genre to be filmed in 3D, the film should inspire curiosity and drive viewers to see the movie in theatres, not on Netflix.
Horror comedy Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, which had a fairly aggressive 875-screen release, failed to attract viewers. It averaged just $1,000 per screen for a total of $885,000.
This Friday, rich-poor wedding comedy Jumping the Broom will hit theatres, along with rom-com Something Borrowed. The real behemoth will be Thor, the Greek god/comic book action extravaganza. It may be spring, but summer movie season has begun.
No comments:
Post a Comment