‘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.

'Fast & Furious 6,' 'Hangover III' and 'Epic' race for Memorial Day audiences

Last year on Memorial Day, the only major player was Men in Black 3. This year, three wide releases are competing for audiences. That could mean more people show up to the movies, but it also means there will be some cannibalization between films.

The Hangover Part III and Fast & Furious 6 have a somewhat overlapping audience: young males. The Hangover Part III (3,555 theatres) opened yesterday to try to get a jump-start on the weekend, and also because it's the weaker film. Tracking only 22% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, this "unstylish action
flick with comic asides" (as described by our Michael Sauter) is not faring well with critics. More importantly, many viewers were disappointed by The Hangover Part II. If people already feel as if they've been burned by the franchise, it's unlikely they'll turn out again. In a way, though, it seems this comedy can't win. The sequel was criticized for being too similar to the first film, yet Sauter faults the three-quel because it "changes up the franchise formula—and not in a good way." It seems like these sequels just can't win, so Warner Bros. is making a good decision to make this the (alleged) end to the franchise.

Fast & Furious 6 (3,658 theatres) is the franchise that keeps on giving. It seems like viewers have had more faith in the franchise than the studio, because screenwriters have to keep resurrecting characters they prematurely gave the boot. In this movie, it means placing a character in Japan to fill in a plot hole from a previous sequel, according to critic Daniel Eagan. Like 74% of Rotten Tomatoes critics, he enjoyed the "long, loud and expensive" movie, which "delivers
what series fans want, although not quite as quickly or cleverly as
before." Fast & Furious 6 will be the fastest out of the gate this weekend, and its four-day total could easily top $100 million.

The first animated film in over two months, Epic (3,882 theatres) should be seeing kids and their parents lining up for an outing. Yet there's a feeling among forecasters that this animated feature will have a tepid reception, especially if parents are savvy enough to realize there are plenty of other animated features in the pipeline for this summer, including Monsters University, Despicable Me 2, Turbo, Planes, and The Smurfs 2. Our critic, Frank Lovece, had the opposite reaction, calling Epic "one of the best features so far from Blue
Sky Studios," and the movie itself full of "thematic richness."

It's rare for an indie romance to turn into a trilogy. But that's the case with Before Midnight (5 theatres), which picks up on the romance between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, this time while the duo is in Greece . Also in the mix this weekend is the latest from documentarian and workhorse Alex Gibney, We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (4 theatres), which Eagan dubbed "brilliant but maddening."

After the four-day weekend, we'll be back on Tuesday to assess the impact of this jam-packed weekend.

Audiences prefer a 'Night at the Museum' to 'Terminator Salvation'

By Sarah Sluis

In the box office battle this weekend, family-friendly history won out over a bleak future with people-hunting machines. On Friday, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian barely edged out Terminator Salvation, earning $15.3 million to T4's $14.9 million, but the matinee crowds on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday chose Night at the Museum, propelling the comedy to a $70 million gross. Despite the fact that the sequel is billed as a family comedy, only half the audience fit the description, with the film proving especially popular among under 25's who needed a break from all the big action films that have dominated the box office. Still, Terminator Salvation's performance, while not that of a break-out hit like Star Trek, was director McG's best opening to date, and has strong prospects overseas. Because the film opened on Thursday, its cumulative is $67 million, only $3 million shy of Night at the Museum's four-day total.

Dance Flick also benefited from being a fresh and comedy-focused offering. The Wayans Brothers' film did best in urban markets, and racked up a pleasing $13.1 million gross over the four-day weekend. At the number five spot, it squeezed in above X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which brought in $10.1 million to bring its cumulative to $165 million, and below Star Trek and Angels & Demons. Star Trek's stats are the most impressive in the top ten: a cumulative of $191 million, a four-day gross of $29.4 million, and only a 31% drop in business. The Spock-Kirk adventure will likely cross the $200 million mark this week. Angels & Demons also held on, dropping 40% to earn an almost-comparable $27.7 million, and also looks likely to cross the $100 million mark this week.

On the specialty side, Summit's The Brothers Bloom continued to do well in limited release, averaging $10,000 on each of its 52 screens. Easy Virtue debuted even better, with a $14,600 average on each of its ten screens. The Girlfriend Experience, despite a blanket of publicity, did more so-so from a box-office perspective, with just a $6,667 average at 30 locations. IFC released the film on-demand a month ago, which some suspect dipped into the theatrical gross.

Next week, another two films will join the top ten. Pixar's Up and horror flick Drag Me to Hell will bump two more films off the top ten list. While I can't think of a more unlikely pair, both have strong advance reviews and are currently tracking at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

This Memorial Day, it's Museums vs. Machines

By Sarah Sluis

Terminator Salvation and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian will go head to head this weekend, though they're targeting much different demographics. Terminator Salvation earned an estimated $3 million last night from midnight screenings, which bodes well for the action flick. The "highly efficient action showcase," according to our Executive Editor Kevin Lally, lacks "the fun quotient of the Schwarzenegger films," diminishing its crossover appeal. Still, it's virtually guaranteed at least $70 million over the weekend, and will likely go above that number.

Rising up against Terminator, Fox is opening Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian 500 screens wider than Salvation, in 4,096 theatres. The original Night at the Museum grossed a modest $30 million in its opening weekend, but by the following weekend has upped its cumulative gross to an astounding $115 million, thanks to high weekday grosses during schools' week off between Christmas and New Year's. Even that number proved to be less than half its final gross of $250 million, proof of the long legs of family films. With most children still in school, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian's success won't be measured as much by its opening weekend, but its performance over the next few weeks--and throughout the entire summer. However, because there hasn't been a live-action family film since Race to Witch Mountain, pent-up demand will likely drive up box-office grosses even higher. Plus, Night at the Museum has the above-average box office on its side, as well as a couple hundred IMAX screens, which will pad the weekend's grosses.

The Wayans Brothers' Dance Flick opens on 2,450 screens, offering an alternative to Terminator and Night at the Museum. If I were a teen boy, however, I'd choose Terminator over Dance Flick, hands down, despite our critic's tepid endorsement that the film's "not a perfect 10, but the Wayans crew hit their mark more than they miss."

The most high-profile of specialty releases is Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience. Sacha Grey, a 21-year-old porn star, plays a high-priced call girl turning tricks as the country slips into a recession. Our reviewer applauds how Soderbergh "convey[s] a view of American culture at once outrageous and non-judgmental," while NY Times' A.O. Scott pondered how the film will sit with audiences once "the turmoil of the last 12 months has receded...and this strange, numb cinematic experience may seem fresh, shocking and poignant rather than merely and depressingly true."

Wes Anderson-style caper film The Brothers Bloom, directed by Rian Johnson, expands this week to 52 theatres after an impressive first week out. Jessica Biel, who stars as the scandalous new wife in an established British family in Easy Virtue, can be seen in New York and Los Angeles.

We'll be back on Tuesday to recap the weekend and crown the winner of this holiday box office.

'Angels & Demons' to usurp top spot from celestial 'Star Trek'?

By Sarah Sluis

Joining the fray of big releases, Angels & Demons opens this weekend (3,527 theatres), its main competition holdovers Star Trek, in its second week of release, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I saw the film this Wednesday and while I'll go along with the opinion that the follow-up is better than The Da Vinci Code, better is a relative term. I think The New York Times' A.O. Scott puts it best, saying director Ron Howard "combines the visual charm of mass-produced postcards with the mental stimulation of an easy Monday crossword puzzle." The intrigue seems paper-thin, and the ciphers are either incredibly easy to decode or require leaps of faith to pursue. Mr. Hanks, for example, simply looks at where statues are pointing and follows their direction, managing to find precision in casual hand gestures. The movie does have a nice twist towards the end, but for the first two-thirds you're actually watching a serial killer movie. Imagine Seven, but set in Rome, and you have the right idea. The Catholic Church, after objecting to the first film, seems to have deemed the second innocuous. Angels & Demons isn't expected to do the big business of Wolverine or Star Trek in its opening weekend, but say a prayer that it will cross $50 million in its opening weekend.

Most of the post-opening weekend Star Trek buzz has centered on one anecdote. Over the past week, I've heard from friends, family, and even eavesdropping, the same comment: "So-and-so [a female who would not be expected to like a sci-fi movie, especially one with such a strong geek following] really liked it." People seem to be interested in the fact that its appeal extends to the anti-fan, which is exactly the kind of word-of-mouth that will sustain a film beyond opening weekend. It's been killing it this week, earning five times as much as Wolverine each day and currently at $99 million.

The specialty market this weekend is packed, once again, though the less-crowded market at Cannes indicates that there will be fewer specialty films in the pipeline. With so many great indie films out there, and only a limited amount of time to see them, many are viewing the slowdown as a good thing. Summit's sneaking its oft-delayed The Brothers Bloom, which stars Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz, into four theatres, with plans to expand the film over the next two weekends. Big Man Japan, a "goofy sci-fi satire aimed at a narrow audience," will release in NY and LA. Romantic comedy Management, which stars Jennifer Aniston as a corporate executive and Steve Zahn as the motel owner she trysts with, opens in 212 theatres. Jerichow, which our reviewer described as a "modern-day, Teutonic Postman Always Rings Twice," also opens in NY and LA, along with IFC's Summer Hours, a story about three children dividing up their mother's belongings after her death.

Angels & Demons should win the box office, though Star Trek 's spectacular weekday performance could make it a tight race. Wolverine should grab the third spot. From the specialty front, The Brothers Bloom will be looking for a strong per-screen average to set up the caper comedy for its expansion. All the wide releases will want to rack up grosses before next week, Memorial Day, which will see ticket sales siphon away towards R-Rated Terminator Salvation and PG-rated Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.