‘Ride Along’ eases ahead of ‘Awkward’

As expected, the domestic box office turned in a series of soft numbers over this past, Super Bowl weekend. The top 12 films earned a combined $72.4 million – which, however, is still a small improvement over this same weekend last year. Clocking in at No. 1 yet again, Ride Along experienced a slight downturn of 42% to earn $12.3 million. The cop comedy has now raked in a little under $93 million in total, and has officially pulled up ahead of Kevin Hart’s last hit film, Think Like a Man, which grossed $91.5 million in 2012. This is the third weekend in a row Ride Along finished the weekend ahead of its competitors. Such a distinction has earned it a place among lucrative company: Gravity and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug also reigned as kings of the box office for three or more consecutive weekends.

Speaking of royalty, the princess protagonists of Disney’s Frozen have yet to lose their appeal. The Mouse House released a sing-along version of its tenacious hit film, and the gambit paid off. Frozen climbed right back up the box-office charts to land at No. 2 this weekend, adding another $9.3 million to its staggering cume of $360+ million. It’s on track to out-gross Despicable Me 2 ($368.1 million) by mid-month.

That Awkward Moment will likely be on its way out by the time Frozen reaches the aforementioned benchmark. Moment marks the worst opening yet for a Zac Efron vehicle: The film debuted to $9 million. With an underwhelming Cinemascore rating of a “B” and less than laudatory reviews from the critics, That Awkward Moment will probably flame out to $20 million or so by the time it finishes up its theatrical run.

At No. 4, The Nut Job earned $7.6 million and crossed the $50 million mark on Sunday (we should have opted for a lively kids’ film over yesterday’s ho-hum football game, too). Lone Survivor just missed besting the animated caper, grossing $7.2 million and enjoying a box-office milestone of its own: The film has now earned $100 million. In fact, Survivor is the last 2013 release to do so, making it the 35^th movie in the past year to earn $100 million or more – a new box-office record.  The last year to have seen so many $100 million successes was 2009, when 32 movies earned the distinction.

Unfortunately, Labor Day’s distinction is not nearly so positive. The Jason Reitman romance had the worst opening of the weekend. Day bombed with $5.4 million. Technically speaking, the film’s debut is better than previous Reitman efforts Young Adult ($3.4 million) and Thank You for Smoking ($4.5 million), however, those films both had much smaller releases, opening in roughly half the number of theaters than Labor Day. Reitman’s contemporary David O. Russell, on the other hand, is in the midst of a career upswing. American Hustle is now the director’s most successful movie, beating Silver Linings Playbook with its current standing of $133.6 million.

Finally, Gravity added $2 million to its domestic cume of $264 million. Over half its earnings stemmed from IMAX screenings.

New buddy comedy could make things ‘Awkward’ for ‘Ride Along’

Super Bowl weekend is a notoriously slow period at the box office, and expectations for each of the two films opening wide today – That Awkward Moment and Labor Day – are muted.  Both movies target a female audience, with the one following a trio of Manhattan pals as they individually succumb to the women they had sworn off, and the other being an unapologetic and seemingly old-fashioned weepie romance. Distributors are surely figuring women are more likely than their male counterparts to go to the movies this weekend, though it remains to be seen whether either of the aforementioned conceits will prove appealing enough to lure even the most disinterested of female sports fans away from her TV and, really, Sunday’s main attraction: the commercials.

That Awkward Moment, opening in 2,809 theatres, is poised to do the better business of the two. As of this morning the comedy was tracking around $10-$15 million, which means it could finally displace Ride Along as king of the box office – or, just as plausibly, fall in line behind Ice Cube and Kevin Hart’s likable flick. It’ll be a tight race between the two bro-centric offerings.

With a slightly smaller release platform of 2,584 locations, Labor Day will likely land at the lower end of the fiscal spectrum. The film has failed to impress critics, whose accumulated pans have earned Jason Reitman’s latest offering a poor 32% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Pundits foresee a total weekend haul of around $6 million.

That leaves The Nut Job, Frozen and Lone Survivor to fall somewhere in between That Awkward Moment and Ride Along at the top, and Labor Day at the bottom of the list of the weekend’s highest-grossing films. The Nut Job managed to beat out b.o. darling Frozen last weekend, but Disney is going all-out diva – or rather, encouraging that mindset in its fan base – as of today: The studio is releasing a sing-along version of their animated hit. Considering Frozen’s soundtrack is the first since High School Musical 2 to spend at least three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, we’d call that a pretty savvy move. In which case, look for Lone Survivor to comfortably occupy the weekend box office’s No. 5 spot.

'Butler' returns to win in mixed bag Labor Day weekend

During a quiet Labor Day weekend, The Butler made a splash, becoming the first 2013 release to stay at the top spot for three weekends in a row. The Civil Rights-movement drama starring Forest Whitaker and, of course, Oprah, earned $14.8 million from Friday to Sunday and $20 million

over the four-day period. Its Monday total was enough to push it ahead of One Direction: This Is Us, which earned $15 million over the normal weekend period, and $18 million through Monday. Concert movies have been popular ever since tween singer Miley Cyrus (you know, the star that performed at the VMAs last weekend) took the sleepy Super Bowl weekend by storm and opened Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour to $31 million. Since then, concert movies have been a bit hit-or-miss, with the Jonas Brothers completely bombing their debut, and Katy Perry not doing much better last year. But Sony was quick to point out that the One Direction movie cost just $10 million, making it an inexpensive win for the studio.

A Spanish-language underdog of a movie, Instructions Not Included, made it to fifth place over the long weekend with a total haul of $10 million. It marks the biggest hit yet for Pantelion Films,
the Lionsgate arm devoted to distributing films targeted at Hispanic audiences. The family-focused narrative, a mixture of comedy and heart, wowed audiences, who gave the movie an "A+" in exit polls. Popular Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez plays a man who takes in his daughter after her birth mother abandons her, then fights to keep her when the mother shows up after they've formed a close bond. In release in just over 300 theatres, it had the best location average of the week, $28,000 per screen.

The car-set thriller Getaway lived up to its 2% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a four-day total of $5.5 million. Still, that was better than the thriller Closed Circuit, which earned $2.5 million over the weekend. Focus Features has used this time slot before for adult thrillers like The American and The Debt, but this opening was markedly worse than those two releases, coming in with just a fraction of the take of those movies' opening weekends.

While the long weekend was poor for new releases, other returning releases posted lower-than-average drops. Blue Jasmine, in its second weekend on over 1,000 screens, had a four-day total of $5.3 million, matching last week's performance day for day. The Grandmaster, which expanded onto over 700 screens, earned $3.1 million, an excellent showing for the martial arts feature.

This Friday will be a light in major releases, with only Riddick opening in over 2,000 theatres.

 

'Possession' wins long weekend, and 'Oogieloves' sets new record for worst opening

The Labor Day weekend is usually a quiet one at the box office, and this year was no exception. The Possession scared up $21.3 million over the four-day period, performing well for the time period. The horror movie actually posted the second-best debut ever for the end-of-the-summer
holiday. Audiences gave the Jewish-themed devil possession a "B" rating, which is good for a genre that usually tops out in the "B+" range.

The Weinstein Co. made a wise decision with Lawless, the Prohibition-set picture that earned $13 million over the long weekend. Despite the top cast, which includes Shia LaBeouf, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce and Tom Hardy, I wasn't so warm on the super-violent picture.
Rotten Tomatoes critics gave is a 65% positive rating, while Metacritic had a lower 58% rating. Even the good reviews were full of caveats. An opening on the Wednesday before Labor Day has been a hot placement for adult-themed pictures in the past two years. Lawless opened ahead of The Debt (which had a five-day total of $14.7 million to Lawless' $15.1 million), but behind The American, which earned $19.8 million during the same period in 2010.

The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure unseated 2008's Delgo from its #1 spot on the list of worst openings on more than 2,000 screens. The preschooler-targeted feature earned $601,000 over the four-day period. Its per-screen average of $278 would put an average of ten people in a theatre per day--which
means just one or two people showed up at each screening. That's pretty bad, especially for a movie that encourages viewing tykes to get up and dance.

2016: Obama's America stayed in the top ten with another $5.5 million as it added another 656 theatres. So far, the conservative picture is holding similar to its left-of-center counterparts, like Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11.

Hope Springs, which held on to the last spot in the top ten, is confirmed as a sleeper success. Pulling in $4.7 million, the Meryl Streep-led picture has earned $53 million to date. The week-to-week drop tightened up from the 30% range to just 17% over the three-day period. Strong holds like this week's will give this light-hearted romance an extremely long tail.

The fun and irreverent For A Good Time, Call... gambled a bit with a wider, 23-screen release. The $8,000 per-screen average exceeds all of the movies in the top ten, but it's on the low side
for specialty releases. However, most specialty releases only open on a couple of screens, so the future of this comedy is harder to gauge.

Flying Swords of Dragon Gate posted a similar per-screen average, $8,300, opening on fifteen screens. Because the release was in 3D and IMAX, which charge higher prices, this Chinese epic actually performed a bit worse than For A Good, Time, Call... Still, America is probably one of the smaller markets for the fight scene-heavy feature, which has already earned many times that in Southeast Asian markets.

This Friday, an author steals an unknown's work in The Words, Bachelorette moves from VOD to theatres, and guns are drawn in The Cold Light of Day.

'The Help' spends a third week shining at #1

By Sarah Sluis

This Labor Day weekend was so quiet, it had the lowest audience attendance in fifteen years, something that doesn't make exhibitors or studios happy. With little competition, The Help coasted right into first place with another $14.6 million, .5% more than the previous weekend. Including Labor Day, the light Southern drama racked up $19 million and currently has $123 million in the pot thanks to its strong holding power.

The Debt, which gave adults the high-quality fare that's been lacking at the summer box office, rightly landed in second place with a $12.5 million four-day total. Sound reviews and support from adult audiences should make the movie a popular choice in subsequent weeks. Last year, Focus released The American over Labor Day weekend, earning $16 million, so The Debt fell short of the benchmark set by that adult thriller.

With two exploitation-style horror movies battling it out over the weekend, neither one shone. Apollo 18, a "found footage" scary sci-fi movie set on the moon, landed at third with a $10.7 million four-daytotal. Shark Night 3D closely followed, with a $10.3 million weekend total. Even with added revenues from 3D screens, the movie still couldn't best Apollo 18.

On the specialty front, two pictures that attracted non-indie audiences shone. Seven Days in Utopia, a faith-based sports movie, averaged $2,900 per screen on 561 screens for a $1.9 million total. Saving Private Perez, an adventure/comedy that sends a Mexican drug lord on a mission to find his brother in Iraq, grabbed the Spanish-speaking audience with $5,000 per screen at 161 locations for an $830,000 total.

Audiences weren't so eager to join in on A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy, which flopped with $825 per screen on 143 screens. IFC's Love Crime, a French-language combination of Working Girl and Single White Female, fared better, with $10,500 per screen at five locations.

This Friday, director Steven Soderbergh's epidemic drama Contagion will open, joined by porn star comedy Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star and the fight movie Warrior.

'The Final Destination' wins another week

By Sarah Sluis

Labor Day weekend proved to be another quiet one at the American box office, as kids headed back to school and lucky people motored out for one last weekend getaway. Since no studio wanted to release a winner on this dead weekend, the number one and two films were holdovers from last week. The grosses from 3D venues pushed The Final Destination to the top with $12.3 million from Friday to Sunday, despite a new offering for males, Gamer. The Gerard Butler sci-fi action movie opened at number four, with a $9.1 million weekend gross.

With no appealing new films at the box office, the second spot went to Inglorious Basterds, now in its third week. The Quentin Tarantino-directed movie added 193 locations and another $11.6 million to its gross, which should cross the $100 million mark next week.

All About Steve, the Sandra Bullock movie that received a unilateral pan, still drummed up $11.2 million in business. Those that saw the film, which I confirmed through a Twitter check, had nothing to say to their friends except "Don't see this!"

Lower down on the list, Extract grabbed the number nine spot with $4.3 million. Better than Idiocracy, and worse than Office Space, the comedy will probably make a bigger impact on DVD than in theatres, where people are more forgiving of a middling quality.

With few new offerings, the rest of the top ten held on to their audiences. District 9 crossed the $100 million mark and brought in $7.1 million. Julie & Julia, which didn't open strong, has turned into a long-tail success story. This week it dropped a slight 24%, the smallest drop in the top ten. If movies drop 50% each week, they will do 85% of their business in the first three weeks, which is considered the industry standard. Going below that number usually indicates a quality film and positive word-of-mouth: The Hangover, for example, only did 55% of its business in the first three weeks. Julie & Julia will likely approach (but not meet) that number. The first three weeks now count for only 73% of the movie's total five-week gross, a number that can only go down, since there are several weeks left in the film's run. With so much attention given to first week grosses, it's worth remembering that movies that appeal to certain demographics, such as older or female audiences, can only be judged a few weeks into their run. (500) Days of Summer, for example, has been hanging out just below the top ten for most of the summer, where it's earned $28.4 million to date.

This Wednesday, dark animated film 9 will open. On Friday, it will be joined by Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself, along with sexy-horror flick Sorority Row and Antarctica-set chiller Whiteout.

'Gamer' makes a play for the top spot

By Sarah Sluis

Labor Day weekend is typically a slow one for the movie business: people are enjoying the last bit of summer, and the kids are heading back to school, making the first few weeks of September less profitable, since there's no one to go to weekday matinees. Studios make the weekend even more anemic by releasing movies over the holiday that barely had a chance anyway. 2009 is no exception.

Releasing in 2,251 theatres, All About Steve is a romantic comedy that should have everyone running at the sight of Sandra Bullock's mullet-like haircut. She plays "a writer of crossword puzzles whose motor-mouth drives everyone other than her forgiving parents to near suicide." Apparently, that also includes the audience. Kirk Honeycutt also called the film "seriously wrong," the kind of movie that makes you "guess what the filmmakers thought they were doing."

Gamer (2,502 theatres) is a futuristic, video-game action movie that appears to borrow most of its "futuristic" plot points from other movies. Like Death Race, the car-race-for-freedom movie, it features death row inmates who are allowed to go free if they can win in a game. In this case, gamers control the bodies of the criminals and play war games with them. Gerard Butler plays one such criminal--a prodigy who is close to completing the thirty missions required to be freed from prison. With its appeal to young males, Gamer is most likely to go number one at the box office.

Extract (1,611 theatres) is the best reviewed film of the bunch, according to Rotten Tomatoes, but that still puts the comedy at a measly 57% approval rating. Honeycutt found the film "depressing" and its characters "wildly dysfunctional" to the point of contrivance. Mike Judge had directed a cult hit, Office Space, which he followed up with Idiocracy, a miss, and it seems Extract may fall somewhere in the middle.

Releasing on the sidelines is Carriers (100 screens), a horror movie about a virus that comes just in time for H1N1 season. Star Trek is re-releasing on 93 IMAX screens and 175 select theatres, hoping to draw back Trekkies for a last chance to see the movie on the big screen. The Final Destination, with its 3D screens, could hold its appeal beyond the first weekend that tends to bring in the bulk of a horror movie's audience. On Tuesday, we'll be back from the long weekend to dissect the weekend's winners and losers.