'The Purge' doubles the opening of 'The Internship'

Thanks to savvy marketing that pulled in both horror fans and those who perfer lighter thrillers, The Purge landed on top with $36 million this weekend. Horror fans liked the idea of seeing a family fend off a violent attack in their home, while others were drawn in by the fact that a futuristic government has made this kind of behavior legal--at least for 12 hours a year. Back in 2002, Panic Room, another home invasion movie that also had more of a thriller than horror vibe, opened to $30 million. The picture performed well among Hispanic audiences, which accounted for a third of ticket sales, as well as women, who bought 56% of the tickets.

In contrast, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn couldn't excite audiences about The Internship. The comedy opened in fourth place with $18.1 million--and it cost far more than the reported $3 million for The Purge. That $18 million total is half the opening of Wedding Crashers, and it's also not a good showing for Shawn Levy, whose directing credits include the $100+ million comedy Date Night. Many critics felt uneasy with the heavy Google tie-in, which came across more like an advertisement than a lampoon, and audiences may feel the same way. In coming weeks, word-of-mouth will make this one sink quickly or coast through a bit longer.

With major blockbusters releasing since the beginning of May, plenty of pictures put in strong holdover weekends, dropping just a third from the previous weekend. Fast & Furious 6 kept its decline to 43%, which still gave the car chase movie $19.7 million. Down 33% in its second weekend, Now You See Me closely tailed Fast & Furious, posting returns of $19.5 million. Further down the list, Epic, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby all dropped in the mid-30% range. There were a couple of losers, though: After Earth plummeted 59% in its second weekend, while The Hangover Part III lost 55% of its audience.

Joss Whedon's foray into Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, averaged $36,000 per screen in five locations, for a total of $183,000. Next week, the low-budget adaptation, set in present day, will expand into a few hundred theatres. The documentary Dirty Wars, which reveals how the "Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has been fighting a secret
war against terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan," had a strong debut, averaging $16,500 per screen in four theatres.

On Wednesday, the apocalyptic comedy This Is the End will hit theatres, followed by superman's return in Man of Steel on Friday.

'Internship' and 'Purge' fight for first in quiet summer weekend

Going into the weekend, The Internship (3,365 theatres) would seem like the frontrunner. The comedy stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, whose Wedding Crashers opened to $33 million in 2005. Yet the story about technologically clueless sales guys finding a niche at Google has been receiving terrible reviews, with our Nick Schager calling the movie a "fawning tribute to Google." What starts out as a fun fish-out-of-water premise, a la Legally Blonde, devolves into a boring intern competition that was a lazy, tired way to organize a script, at least from my point-of-view.  Because of the poor reviews (only a third of Rotten Tomatoes critics are coming in "fresh") and the fact that workplace comedies are often a tough sell even without the branded entertainment feel, The Internship won't be coming in first in the class--in fact, it may not exceed $20 million.

The little speculative thriller that could, The Purge (2,536 theatres), may go over $20 million and grab first place this weekend. The premise is this: The government decides to allow a 12-hour period once a year where all crimes will go unpunished. One year, a security consultant who has profited from protecting people during the crime spree finds himself in hot water, in part because his kids don't quite understand the risks (and reasoning) behind the one-night rampage. Although The Purge has only slightly better reviews than The Internship, the picture will benefit by drawing in both horror fans and those who prefer broader suspense. It also has people in really creepy masks, the better to create goosebumps among viewers.

Writer/director Joss Whedon goes from The Avengers to Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing (5 theatres), to which both critics and Whedon fans have alighted. "While cleaving away some of
Shakespeare’s more dragging plot points, Whedon hews to the
original text," critic Chris Barsanti reports. "This refusal to juice
the material with gimmickry pays out handsomely, as Whedon’s
crackerjack cast, drawn mainly from his troupe of TV actors, spins
as fine a web of delicate comedy as will grace movie screens this
year."

Also in the mix this week is Tiger Eyes (13 theatres) an adaptation of Judy Blume's novel about a teen recovering after the sudden death of her father. Directed by Blume's son Lawrence, Tiger Eyes surprisingly has some clumsy screenwriting, according to critic Marsha McCreadie, but a great message about "going home again" and a focus that is "unquestionably a film about family."

On Monday, we'll see if the novelty of The Purge won over the branded comedy of The Internship.