‘Lego’ leaves the competition far behind

Everything is indeed awesome for the makers of The Lego Movie, whose popular animated flick earned the top spot at the domestic box office for the third consecutive weekend. Easing just 37 percent, Lego grossed $31.5 million. Its overall cume now stands at $183.2 million. Unsurprisingly, Warner Bros. has already greenlit a sequel. The Lego Movie 2 is slated to hit theatres on Memorial Day 2017.

Don’t count on a follow-up to the McG-directed 3 Days to Kill, however. The actioner starring Kevin Costner took second place with an unremarkable $12.3 million. The film’s weekend gross is a little less than that which The Family, the last collaboration between writer-producer Luc Besson and Relativity Media, earned over its opening weekend this past September. Kill’s audience was an older crowd, 80 percent over the age of 25, who collectively awarded the film a B CinemaScore grade. Expectations for the movie’s total haul are pretty low: Pundits are predicting the film will earn around $30 million overall.

However, with a budget of only $28 million, at least 3 Days to Kill isn’t as large – or should we say as volcanic? – a bomb as Pompeii. It’s true, most pundits weren’t expecting much from the poorly reviewed disaster film, but Pompeii managed to underperform nonetheless.  The movie earned $10 million this weekend, a dismal debut considering its production costs topped $100 million. Pompeii’s opening weekend figure was less than half of fellow big-budget movie and box-office failure Poseidon’s debut haul, although it is slightly better than those openings enjoyed by The Legend of Hercules ($8.9 million) and I, Frankenstein ($8.6 million), both of which films were also heavily CGI-dependent. Maybe sensory overload fatigue has finally begun to set in?

Clocking in at No. 4, RoboCop earned $9.4 million, which represents a drop of 57 percent from last weekend. So far, the reboot has grossed $43.6 million.

It may not be the critics’ cup of tea, but George Clooney’s The Monuments Men continues to satisfy a sizable portion of the movie-going public. The WWII caper took in another $8.1 million this weekend, earning it the No. 5 spot and bumping its overall cume to $58 million.

The weekend after Valentine’s Day was a tough one for those releases that opened wide on the national chocolate-and-flowers holiday. About Last Night fared the best, though it still suffered a drop of 71 percent to gross $7.4 million – its total earnings currently stand at $38.2 million. Endless Love took a hit of 68 percent and has now grossed $20.1 million. Poor, misguided Winter’s Tale dipped 71 percent; its total clocks in at a little over $11 million.

Finally, the weekend’s specialty division saw a solid limited opening for Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises. The nominee for Best Animated Feature took in $306,000 from 21 locations. It should continue to chart a successful course once it expands to 450 theatres this coming weekend.

'The Lego Movie' assembles boffo weekend figures

The Lego Movie enjoyed a stellar four days this President’s Day weekend. The animated film that’s a hit with both kids and adults earned a pretty darn awesome $63.5 million Friday-Monday. It grossed $50 million from the weekend alone, which tallies out to a slight 28 percent drop from last weekend. To compare, similar title The Lorax dipped 45 percent its second weekend in theatres.  The Lego Movie has earned $143.8 million to date.

The rest of the weekend’s titles more or less stacked up as expected.  About Last Night landed just behind Lego with $25.7 million. This second consecutive hit (after Ride Along) for comedian Kevin Hart had the best opening for a rom-com since another Hart title, Think Like a Man, debuted to $33.6 million in 2012. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the film’s viewers were female (63 percent) and skewed older (57 percent were over the age of 30).

RoboCop failed to meet Sony’s initial projection of $35 million for the four-day spread. Instead, the sci-fi remake earned a slightly disappointing if still solid $21.7 million. Audiences were 62 percent male and 64 percent over the age of 25, and awarded the movie a CinemaScore rating of a B+. Odds are RoboCop will eventually bow out to the tune of $60 or $70 million.

The Monuments Men made the Top 5 as predicted, though it took the No. 4 and not the No. 5 slot as many had expected. Men is now George Clooney’s most successful outing as a director, and it grossed $15.5 million over the past four days. The weekend’s earnings have bumped The Monuments Men’s cume to $44.2 million.

It was Endless Love that took the weekend’s No. 5 spot, earning $13.2 million. The vast majority of that four-day gross – over 56 percent of it – came from Valentine’s Day ticket sales, which means Love can now boast one of the most front-loaded openings over. Eighty percent of viewers who paid good money to watch pretty young things love, lust and, well, look pretty, were female, and 76 percent were under the age of 25. They generally liked what they saw, awarding the movie an A- CinemaScore grade. Endless Love’s heavily front-loaded debut, however, portends a steep drop in the weeks ahead.

But at least Love can say it enjoyed one good weekend, which is one more than fellow romance Winter’s Tale. The adaptation of Mark Helprin’s beloved and perhaps too sprawling novel was a categorical bomb with its $7.3 million debut. That figure landed Tale at No. 7, plunking it down behind enduring success Ride Along. Writer-producer-director Akiva Goldsman’s misfire will likely fade out within the next few weeks or so.

Weekend box office to host battle of the remakes

As VH1 would say: I love the ‘80s. Or rather, Hollywood does, rolling out three remakes of films that were popular 30-odd years ago. Even with RoboCop, About Last Night, and Endless Love stacking the bill, however, general consensus has last weekend’s champion, The Lego Movie, once again taking first place.

About Last Night will likely land just behind Lego, with Sony predicting returns somewhere in the mid-20 millions. It’s a romance flick opening on Valentine’s Day, and one that boasts a marquee actor who has already proven his box-office worth with films like Think Like a Man and the recent hit Ride Along, Kevin Hart. Both of which factors have led some pundits to believe Sony’s expectations are a little low. Think Like A Man, for example, opened to $33.6 million in 2012. Chances are good About Last Night will meet, if not exceed, that bar.

RoboCop opened a few days ahead of the weekend this past Wednesday night. Sony had predicted a debut of roughly $35 million for the Wednesday-Monday spread, but RoboCop got off to a rough start on Wednesday night, raking in just $2.8 million. Granted, much of the country was battling poor weather conditions, but underwhelming reviews and diehard RoboCop fan skepticism (the new color of the hero’s suit and the soft PG-13 rating are two points of contention) do not bode well for a considerable uptick through the weekend. It’s more likely RoboCop will earn between $20 and $25 million.

The final 1980s remake, Endless Love, will surely benefit from opening on Hallmark’s National Date Night, or Valentine’s Day, today. Similar titles The Vow and Safe Haven fared pretty well over this same weekend the past two years, and their demographic, teenage girls, will likely help Love earn solid figures. Even given the film’s lack of headlining stars (The Vow had Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum going for it) or recognizable name brand (Safe Haven was a Nicholas Sparks adaptation), eye-candy Alex Pettyfer and a tried-and-true star-crossed lovers storyline should nonetheless help Endless Love gross around $10 million.

Given Winter’s Tale cast – Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly – period setting, and heavily romantic plot, one would think the novel adaptation would be primed to easily beat Endless Love, if not the weekend’s other two new releases. Unfortunately, those stars about which Jessica Brown Findlay spoke so dreamily within the film have not aligned for its likely success. Director-writer-producer Akiva Goldsman’s labor of love has been almost universally panned, and there are many who believe the movie’s marketing has done a poor job explaining just what exactly the time-traveling tale is about. Returns should tally out to less than $10 million, which means Winter’s Tale will probably not crack the long weekend’s Top 5. Monuments Men should earn the No. 5 spot, dropping some 40 percent or so from last weekend to rake in $12 or $13 million.

Happy Valentine's Day!