‘Need for Speed’ crashes at box office

Jesse Pinkman deserves better. Hollywood’s latest videogame adaptation undercut what were already modest expectations this weekend when Need for Speed failed to nab first (or second) place at the box office. Instead, the Aaron Paul-starrer earned a disappointing $17.8 million. Its debut haul secured the film third-place standing behind Mr. Peabody and Sherman ($21.2 million) and 300: Rise of an Empire ($19.1 million). The former enjoyed a solid hold from the previous weekend, dropping just 34 percent.  To compare, last year’s The Croods dropped 39 percent its second weekend in theatres, while How to Train Your Dragon also dipped 34 percent. Rise of an Empire took a fairly steep hit – suffering a downturn of 58 percent – but its overall cume remains respectable ($78.3 million to date).

With an “eh” CinemaScore rating of a B+, it looks as if Need for Speed will only continue to stall. Overall returns should tally out to south of $50 million. As for Tyler Perry’s Single Moms Club, it’s unlikely the film will even reach that benchmark. The prolific Perry suffered his worst opening yet with Club, which grossed $8.3 million. Prior to this weekend, Daddy’s Little Girls was Perry’s least-successful outing, having opened to $11.2 million in 2007.

Perry’s last few features (Tyler Perry Presents Peeples, A Madea Christmas) have also been disappointments. The films’ distributor, Lionsgate, has had a rough time of it recently: The company suffered losses on both The Legend of Hercules and I, Frankenstein as well. Let’s hope this weekend’s Divergent changes its luck for the better.

No such wishes are needed for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which continues to do marvelous business. This past weekend saw the comedy rake in an additional $3.6 million from 66 locations. The film will enjoy its largest expansion yet this coming weekend, when it will screen in 275 theatres.

Despite some streaming troubles for those who opted to pay for a Web version of the film, Veronica Mars can be called a modest success. The movie earned $2 million from 291 locations. With the continued and concurrent availability of VOD, however, it will be interesting to see how the movie holds in the coming weeks.

Here’s hoping the weeks ahead are kinder to Jason Bateman’s Bad Words. The actor’s feature directorial debut hasn’t gotten off to a boffo start: The movie screened in six locations and grossed just $120,000. It will expand nationwide on Friday.

‘300: Rise of an Empire’ dominates weekend BO

300: Rise of an Empire debuted to strong numbers this weekend, even if it failed to match the boffo opening of 300. The sequel raked in $45.05 million from 3,470 locations (compared with the first film’s $70.9 million gross) and can largely thank 3D ticket sales for its high returns: 3D screenings accounted for 63 percent of earnings. Thirty-eight percent of the audience for Rise of an Empire was made up of women, an uptick from 300, which drew a crowd that was only 29 percent female. Viewers of both sexes awarded the movie a “B” CinemaScore grade, which isn’t great, and may portend a significant drop in sales over the coming weeks. However, it’s likely the film will continue to perform well abroad. Rise of an Empire may have fallen short of 300 here in the United States, but it out-performed its predecessor overseas. From 58 markets, Empire reaped $87.8 million. Russia led the international crowd with $9.2 million.

The weekend’s other wide release, Mr. Peabody & Sherman performed to 20^th Century Fox’s expectations, though it was still a disappointment for DreamWorks. The update on the classic cartoon grossed $32.5 million. That figure is an improvement over previous DreamWorks films Rise of the Guardians and Turbo, but it failed to match the highs of The Croods and How to Train Your Dragon, which both debuted to over $40 million. Those who did purchase tickets to the film, however, seemed to like what they saw: Audiences gave the movie an “A” CinemaScore rating. That’s a good sign so far as positive word-of-mouth goes, and could help propel the film to an eventual cume of $100 million.

The weekend’s third-place slot went to Non-Stop, which added another $15.4 million to a total that now stands at $52.1 million. The Lego Movie clocked in next with its $11 million gross, a downturn of 47 percent. That drop in sales is the hit movie’s steepest yet, and is probably thanks to competition from Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Lego’s total is currently $225 million.

In fifth place, Son of God earned $10 million, off 61 percent from last weekend. So far, the re-appropriation of The History channel’s “The Bible” mini-series has earned $41.5 million.

Finally, the weekend’s most exciting box-office news comes in the form of The Grand Budapest Hotel. This latest outing for Wes Anderson broke the record previously set by Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master for highest-grossing limited live action debut ever (maybe it’s something in the directors’ shared name?). The Grand Budapest Hotel earned $800,000 in total, which works out to a per-screen average of a little more than $200,000 (the movie opened in four theatres, two in LA and two in New York, this weekend). Budapest will expand to 1,000+ locations over the coming five weeks.

 

DreamWorks Animation's 'The Croods' discovers fire at the box office

DreamWorks Animation's The Croods hit the sweet spot above $40 million, finishing the weekend with $44.7 million. It was enough to put Wall Street analysts in a good mood, even though a similar opening for How to Train Your Dragon in 2010 made them nervous and sent stock prices downward. I guess this time they have slightly better information about how strongly these animated films
perform after opening weekend. Audiences gave it an "A" rating, but only 38% viewed it in 3D, a relatively low share of the total.

Early 2013 has been filled with adult action films just like Olympus Has Fallen, minus the White House. Yet R-rated, adult male-skewing pictures have mainly fallen flat, leading some to belive there's a glut in product. However, the thriller's setting at the Presidential residence screamed for viewers to pay attention, and they did. Olympus debuted to $30.5 million, well above projections. Yes, 75% of viewers were over 25, but surprisingly Olympus also appealed to women, so the feature 
only skewed 53% male.

As predicted, Admission underwhelmed. Its debut of $6.4 million was even lower than projected. Director Paul Weitz seems to specialize in sweet comedies like About a Boy that end up not doing that strongly at the box office. Now, About a Boy's $8 million opening a decade ago probably looks quite nice. I thought Admission was quite charming, but
audiences didn't agree, giving it a "B-" score in exit polls.  The audience that turned out was discerning: 68% were women, and 47% were over 50. If some of them recommend the movie, though, it could have a pleasantly long run or find some redemption in the VOD/streaming markets. Despite the presence of two recognizable names, Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, the comedy only cost $13 million, so its smaller opening may still put the movie on the road to profitability.

Moving from specialty theatres and SXSW screenings to over 1,000 locations, Spring Breakers did just fine, earning $5.4 million and posting a per-screen average of $4,500 per screen, which was better than the two films that placed ahead of the fifth-place finisher. That's still quite a drop from last weekend's  $87,000 per-screen average. The campy look at spring break exploits may be destined for niche rather than mainstream success, but I think a week or two of more slowly declining returns will be needed to affirm that hunch.

On Thursday, G.I. Joe: Retaliation will launch an early attack on the box office. Then on Friday, Tyler Perry's latest, Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, will go up against The Host, which is based on a novel by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer.

'The Croods' kicks off school holiday while 'Spring Breakers' expands for the college set

The first major animated film to open this year, The Croods (4,046 theatres), could easily exceed the mid-$40 million figure Fox is predicting for the DreamWorks Animation production. A debut weekend in that range would put it in line with the March opening of DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon. At the time, that opening for Dragon was seen as low, but it ended up grossing five times its opening weekend, or $217 million. That's an excellent multiple. In comparison, DWA's Megamind opened $3 million higher than Dragon but had a cumulative total that was $75 million lower. The difference here is partly one of quality: Dragon had a 98% critics rating to Megamind's 73% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. The Croods is currently falling below both of those numbers: just 61% of critics have come out in favor of the film. One of those is FJI's Kevin Lally, who lauded the "dazzling 3D style" and "lively vocal performances" of the leads. The concept of a
prehistoric family battling to survive feels novel enough, which could give the animated feature a boost. That plus the pent-up demand for a quality animated feature (the ratings are still higher than those for Escape from Planet Earth) and the release timed to kids' spring break could spell great box-office returns.

With an early 2013 glut of R-rated content geared towards adult males, Olympus Has Fallen (3,098 theatres) may be the latest to fall flat. However, the scope and budget of this "Die Hard in the White House" feature at least feels larger than its comparable predecessors. But then you read the reviews. Our Daniel Eagan was unimpressed with the "generic thriller marred by poor special effects." It also earns its R rating with "grim, ugly" and graphic depictions of violence. Gerard Butler, who leads as a Secret Service agent, hasn't been much of a draw for audiences lately (see: Playing for Keeps) and a lackluster opening could only confirm that
his star status is in jeopardy. At least this time, he'll have the help of Morgan Freeman playing House Speaker and acting President.

Tina Fey plays an uptight admissions officer in Admission (2,160 theatres),
a "bracingly smart, affecting romp" that critic David Noh thought was
"one of the best comedies in a while." Paul Rudd plays the leader of an
alternative school who's gunning to get one of his students into
Princeton. Focus is smartly limiting the release, and fewer auditoriums
should lead to a greater concentration of laughter. Still, this one will
open low, to around $10 million, and then will rely on word-of-mouth to
turn it into a quiet, Pitch Perfect-like hit.

Spring Breakers wowed last weekend with a stunning per-screen average. It expands to 1,104 theatres today, and the big question is if its success in specialty theatres in New York and Los Angeles will translate to success across the nation. Because of doubts about the movie's viability, sub-$10 million estimates have been circulating, but I think it could potentially go much, much higher. People drawn in by director Harmony Korine's auteur status will be sitting next to people who are just looking for American Pie-style debauchery.

Opening in just 4 theatres, The Sapphires offers a "familiar but supremely well-told and produced tale" about four Aboriginal young women who entertain the troops during the Vietnam War, assesses critic Doris Toumarkine. The socially aware feature about a group's rise of success, which I gave a shout-out to earlier this week, is a ripe offering for specialty-seeking audiences.

On Monday, we'll see which films were in the winners in a weekend crowded with a number of attractive offerings.