'Now You See Me' pulls off magic trick, beats 'After Earth'

Going into the weekend, most predictions had After Earth opening above $30 million, and Now You See Me languishing in the teen-million range. But the predictions were wrong. Now You See Me exceeded expectations, landing in second place with a $28 million opening. After Earth underperformed with just $27 million over the weekend. The fact that Now You See Me wasn't a tentpole worked in its favor, as the feature drew younger audiences (52% under 30) who liked the idea of a light, magic-driven heist movie. The casting of popular star Morgan Freeman also contributed to the bottom line. In contrast, After Earth suffered from poor reviews and a tepid "B" CinemaScore. The original sci-fi concept also didn't entice audiences the way other pre-sold Will Smith and Jaden Smith properties, like MIB 3 and The Karate Kid, did.

Bollywood movies often debut in the top twenty, but it's rare for a feature to open in the top ten. But that was the case for Yei Jawaani Hai Deewani, which landed in ninth place with $1.6 million, posting a $10,000 per-screen average. The romantic coming-of-age story stars Ranbir Kapoor, the fourth generation of an action family who have been dubbed "Bollywood royalty."

Eco-thriller The East debuted with the highest per-screen average of the week, earning $18,900 in each of its four locations. Fellow indie The Kings of Summer was right behind, averaging $14,500 per screen in its four-screen opening weekend. Before Midnight had an excellent second weekend as it expanded from five to 31 locations. The travelogue romance averaged $13,000 per screen and earned $431,000. With $800,000 in total, the Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy starrer should pass $1 million by week three.

This Friday, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson sign up for The Internship with Google, and those in search of scares can check out the speculative thriller The Purge.

'Iron Man 3' debuts with $175 million, second-highest opening ever after 'The Avengers'

With a jackpot opening of $175.3 million, Iron Man 3 was second only to the $200 million opening of The Avengers, which also featured Tony Stark--plus a bunch of other superheroes. Stark, as played by Robert Downey Jr., is clearly the most popular of the bunch, and that was reflected in the box-office returns. Now that the opening is secured, the rest of the run is already a bit of science. Domestically, the film will end up somewhere above $400 million and a bit under $500 million. Overseas, where the sequel has earned over $500 million, total returns could be $700 million or higher--especially since foreign markets like China are expanding. One thing's clear: It's only a matter of time before Iron Man 3 tops $1 billion in returns.

With Iron Man 3 dominating the box office, most other movies dropped sharply. The worst hit were releases with an action, macho-y feel, like Pain & Gain (down 62%), Oblivion (down 67%), and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (down 65%). Family fare did better, with Oz the Great and Powerful actually going up .6% to $1.8 million, and The Croods dropping 37% to $4.2 million.

Specialty fare also had some bright spots. Mud ascended into the top ten, earning $2.1 million in seventh place while dipping just 3% from last week. The Place Beyond the Pines held on in tenth place, accruing $1.2 million as business dropped by half from the previous week.

The Iceman, which is led by Michael Shannon, averaged $23,000 per
screen at four locations, an extremely strong opening that suggests the
indie will have an excellent specialty run.

A documentary for lovers of fashion and Manhattan retailers Bergdorf Goodman, Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's averaged $9,800 per screen in four locations. That's a solid opening for an indie doc, but if you were to spend that much at Bergdorf's, it would only be enough to buy a few Birkin bags.

While Iron Man 3 clearly delivered with its blockbuster weekend, a busy May means there will be tough competition ahead that may affect how long the movie plays. The first real competition will be two weeks from now, when Star Trek Into Darkness opens. This Friday, The Great Gatsby will go after an audience seeking a different kind of epic experience, while Tyler Perry-produced Peeples will insert a comedy into the mix.

'Oblivion' summits box office with $38 million opening

The "summer" movie season has been creeping up earlier and earlier each year. Oblivion opted to jump the gun on Iron Man 3, the first would-be blockbuster of the year, for a less competitive spot in mid-April. The placement appears to have paid off. The Tom Cruise-led sci-fi picture opened to $38 million. It will have one more wide-open week before Iron Man 3 siphons away an audience looking to see the biggest, visual effects-laden picture out there. One thing it won't have, however, is strong word-of-mouth. Viewers, which skewed male and were mostly over the age of 25, gave the movie just a "B-" rating, which won't help out the movie in coming weeks.

Specialty pick The Place Beyond the Pines tripled the amount of theatres showing the drama, but only received a boost of 23%. Still, that's consistent for small releases expanding wide. The $4.7 million weekend pushed the movie's cumulative total above $11 million, making it director Derek Cianfrance's biggest success yet.

The Jackie Robinson biopic 42 earned an "A+" rating from audiences last week, but it still dropped a bit more than would be expected given that excellent audience feedback. The $18 million weekend total reflected a 34% dip from the previous week. If the well-regarded feature continues to restrain its losses to a third or so, however, it should be in for the long haul.

This weekend turned out to be a good one for smaller releases targeted at niche audiences. The Christian-themed baseball picture Home Run earned $1.6 million and posted a $4,000 per-screen average. Filly Brown, a drama about the life of Latino street poet, earned $1.3 million off a miniscule budget. The movie played in the Sundance Film Festival last year. Rob Zombie's horror movie The Lords of Salem also played well, topping $622,000 while playing on 354 screens.

On Friday, the romantic comedy The Big Wedding will play against Pain & Gain, an action comedy about bodybuilders-turned-kidnappers.

'Evil Dead' frightens, and 'Jurassic Park 3D' still has some roar

Evil Dead showed it could still scare audiences. The remake of the 1981 cult classic earned $26 million over the weekend. Anywhere over $20 million or so is a pretty good sign for a horror remake. However, it's likely the gross-out horror movie will fade fast, especially because it only received a "C+"
rating in exit polls.

Twenty years after Jurassic Park introduced its groundbreaking special effects to audiences, it turns out they still look pretty good--even, and especially, in 3D. The re-release of the Steven Spielberg-directed classic earned $18.2 million. Overseas, it could do even better, though it hasn't released in any key foreign markets yet. Next year, Jurassic Park 4 will hit theatres, and audiences will be primed to
revisit the world of the original film.

With some kids finishing up spring break, animated The Croods showed strong holding power, dipping just 21% for a third-weekend total of $21.1 million and a total of $125 million. That's only slightly off the third-week total for DreamWorks Animation's 2010 hit How to Train Your Dragon, a great sign for the studio after its holiday release, Rise of the Guardians, disappointed.

All three new specialty releases posted debuts in the $30,000 per-screen range, but had different numbers of total locations. Robert Redford-led The Company You Keep unspooled in 5 locations, averaging $29,200 per screen. Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle's thriller Trance averaged $34,000 per screen in 4 locations,
giving it a cumulative total just $10,000 below Company You Keep's. Finally, the cryptic sci-fi romance Upstream Color earned $31,000 at a single location.

The weekend was also good for indies expanding their releases. The Place Beyond the Pines went from 4 to 30 locations and rose 148% to $695,000. The Ryan Gosling-led indie maintained a per-screen average above $20,000, which bodes well for future weeks.

The music-filled feature The Sapphires is also on its way up. As it added 48 locations, it earned 3.5 times its total last week, for a weekend haul of $322,000.

This Friday, 42 tells the story of the first black man in Major Leauge Baseball, Jackie Robinson, and horror parody Scary Movie 5 will give Evil Dead watchers a chance to make fun of the films they love.

Sarah Sluis' Top Ten Movies of 2012

2012 has been a great year for big Hollywood films. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, my top ten lists were stocked with underdogs and the kind of specialty fare that only sometimes made it big at the box office. This year, most of the "specialty" releases I selected are destined for expansion and great play in theatres, so I'm a little light on the underdogs. The list reflects only the movies I saw in theatres this year: 70, a number many critics could easily double. In no particular order, here are my top ten:

1. Zero Dark Thirty. The biggest surprise for me was that the film's protagonist, Maya, was female, "a woman clothed, like Athena, in willful strength and intellectual armor," as described by The New Yorker's David Denby. She's the kind of female protagonist you don't realize is rare until you see her up on the screen. Beyond Maya (played expertly by Jessica Chastain), director Kathryn Bigelow lays out an incredibly detailed account of the years leading up to Bin Laden's death that feels real, immediate, and important. It's a cinematic (and partly fictional) version of reading The 9/11 Comission Report.

2. Next to Maya, Gina Carano was the second most awesome female protagonist of the year in Haywire. The lean spy actioner had some of the most riveting, realistic fighting I've ever seen. Like Zero Dark Thirty, there's a lot that director Steven Soderbergh didn't bother to explain. I like a story where a filmmaker or actor has the courage or confidence not to show something, and this movie was one of them.

3. Flight showed little restraint. The final minutes added a moralizing touch that felt old-fashioned and uncomfortable. Like the car crash scene in Adaptation, Flight has one of the best action sequences ever appearing in a drama. It stays with you for the rest of the film. Another great movie about alcoholism that didn't quite make the list, Smashed, is an interesting companion piece: substitute a plane crash for a faked pregnancy and you end up with a quite similar character arc.

4. Argo was so much fun to watch. Even though I had read the magazine article that was the source material and knew the end plane sequence didn't really happen, it managed to combine real drama with comedy in a way that so few others have. I think this is why audiences finally returned to the "box-office poison" of Middle East-set features. This one had you clapping and gasping in suspense, but it also had great laughs and didn't take itself too seriously.

5. The documentary Searching for Sugar Man centered on folk musician Rodriguez, a man so befuddling and enigmatic it was hard to wrap your mind around him. But that's why I like documentaries: They can offer character portraits that would never work in fiction films, because audiences would find them too frustrating. Some key would need to be provided to the audience to unlock his or her motivations. But we never get one for Rodriguez, whose life as both a star and an aesthete becomes a koan on character and fame for the audience to meditate on. In one forest, Rodriguez's music fell on deaf ears. In another (South Africa), it became a symbol of cultural revolution.

6. Les Misérables promises to shake up the way musicals are filmed for the screen. The live recordings of the actors strip away the distance that always seems to crop up in musicals. Sure, Les Misérables is one of my favorite musicals, but that only raises expectations. Mine were met, and then some.

7. Beasts of the Southern Wild may also change the world of indie film. I'd rather have a crop of indie imitators try to tackle a project like this than sit through another Mumblecore, but given the immense resolve required of those who soldiered through the bayou-set production, I doubt there will be too many. Beasts opened up dialogue about New Orleans and Katrina and made the experience of seeing a movie feel new again. For that, it gets a spot in the top ten.

8. I'm still not quite sure what to think about Django Unchained. I admire director Quentin Tarantino for traversing into the quicksand territory that is race relations and America's history of slavery. So far, people have only taken issue with small things, like the use of the N-word. Surely more thoughtful cultural critiques are to come. What I remember most about Django is its use of guided awe. Django (Jamie Foxx) rides into town on a horse, prompting head-turning stares from every person in town. A black person on a horse? Tarantino draws attentions to anachronisms, but the emotions of hatred and revenge never feel far removed from the present.

9. I don't ever want to see The Impossible again, but its account of a family torn apart by the tsunami in Thailand was harrowing and intimate. It was essentially a two-hour ordeal of getting choked up and holding back tears. Those in search of an emotional ravaging need to look no further.

10. Everyone seems to be hating The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey but I thought it was a nice solid Hobbit meal. Suddenly, Lord of the Rings made sense to me. With fewer deaths and a lighter tone, this is the kind of fantasy adventure that would have been a great kickoff to the film series. The Harry Potter books started off light and got darker and darker, and the same holds true for The Hobbit. This one was actually still close to the Prisoners of Azkaban-level in terms of darkness, but the movie makes my list just because it's such a relief to finally get a series I never really latched onto.

 

'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.

'Bourne Legacy' and 'Campaign' take lead from 'Dark Knight Rises'

Arriving a month after The Dark Knight Rises, The Bourne Legacy relieved the Batman film of its number one spot with a $40.2 million opening. That's off 42% from the Matt Damon-starring Bourne Ultimatum. Hollywood so frequently relaunches franchises, it's easy to put that figure in context. X-Men: First Class suffered a 53% loss when it revved up again, while The Amazing Spider-Man had better luck, performing 30% off the previous incarnation of the franchise. That means The Bourne Legacy is right in the middle. Attendees gave the movie a so-so B rating in exit polls, which is partly attributed to the abrupt ending. I was one of the people who turned to my guest and said, "That's it?" in confusion, too, so I'm actually glad that other viewers didn't buy into the sudden ride off into the sunset either. I suspect this Bourne film will yield a sequel, but I think the production team will need to work a bit harder to close up those gaps in believability.

The Campaign overperformed to place second with $27.4 million. The Will Ferrell-Zach Galifianakis political comedy earned a 67% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is on the high side for Ferrell's comedies. His best-rated movies top out in the 70-80% range, and he's no stranger to the other side of the ratings spectrum either. THR reports that the comedy broadened its base beyond the typical under-25s that go for R-rated laughs. In Boston (Mitt Romney's home base) and Washington D.C., the feature performed well on Saturday, a time that usually sees drop-offs for this genre. The North Carolina-set comedy also played well in the South and the Midwest.

Hope Springs finished fourth with $15.6 million over the weekend, for a five-day total of $20 million. That's actually the same figure earned by Meryl Streep's 2009 feature Julie & Julia, which ended up earning just under $100 million. The audience was two-thirds female, with 69% of ticket buyers over the age of forty. Because Hope Springs isn't bringing in as broad of an audience, most doubt it will reach the same total as Julia & Julia, but the older moviegoers should ensure the film plays over a long period, since this demographic doesn't focus as much on seeing movies opening day.

Star/writer/director Julie Delpy's follow up to 2 Days in Paris, 2 Days in New York, averaged $13,500 per screen in two locations. Fantasy romance Ruby Sparks passed the $1 million mark by earning $453,000 in 261 locations.

Nitro Circus: The Movie totaled $1.1 million over the weekend and $2.1 million since it opened on Wednesday. At $1,100 per screen, the average theatre totals aren't so high. Could the movie have done better on fewer screens?

With just two weekends before Labor Day, when the box office takes a dive, studios are throwing in all their final summer films. On Wednesday, Disney releases the sentimental pic The Odd Life of Timothy Green. On Friday, The Expendables 2 will vie for the action-focused male audience, stop-motion animated Paranorman will attempt to scare adults and kids alike, and the late Whitney Houston will make her final cinematic appearance in Sparkle.

Audiences flock to 'The Lorax,' giving it a record weekend

Apparently, estimates that put The Lorax at $50 million this weekend were woefully inadequate. The CG-animated Dr. Seuss adaptation earned $70.7 million its opening weekend, the highest yet recorded in 2012. Since no big-budget animated titles have released since December, many families were eager to check out the picture, which comes with an environmental message. People in Hollywood seem to find a way to be number one in any way they can. In the case of The Lorax, it felled the record for "non-sequel animated title," unseating 2004's The Incredibles. The Dr. Seuss fable received an extra boost from 3D and IMAX, which contributed half of the weekend take. Although critics lambasted the movie, audiences gave it an "A" rating in exit polls. Since family movies tend to perform strongly for multiple weeks, The Lorax will likely cross the $100 million mark by next weekend and set its sights on a loftier goal--like $200 million.

The tale of a teen's party that spirals out of control, Project X performed on the high side of expectations, earning $20.7 million. Since the low-budget project cost just $12 million, Warner Bros. will be in the green with this picture. I give it points for innovation, since it adapted the found-footage technique to what is for adults a pretty familiar movie topic.

The recipient of the Best Picture Oscar, The Artist, ascended to tenth place post-win. Going up 34% from last week, it earned $3.9 million, its biggest weekend to date. Still, its $2,200 per-screen average indicates the critical darling didn't scale particularly well and is better suited for the arthouse crowd.

Being Flynn failed to ignite. The adaptation of Another Bull***t Night in Suck City, starring Robert De Niro, earned just $11,000 per screen in four locations. A figure three times that would have shown that the movie was generating strong interest.

The Oscar winner for Best Documentary, also a Weinstein Co. release, showed more traction after its win. Undefeated, an inspiring tale of football players in a poor town who are changed by their involvement in the sport, went up 337%. Moving from seven to twelve theatres, it averaged $7,000 per screen for a total of $84,000.

This Friday, sci-fi adventure John Carter will open, the indie-esque horror picture Silent House will introduce more audiences to the "third Olsen sister," and Eddie Murphy will appear in A Thousand Words.

'New Year's Eve' leads a lackluster box office

By Sarah Sluis

The period from Thanksgiving to New Year's is usually filled with good movies, but early December tends to be sluggish at the box office as people focus on holiday gift shopping. This weekend, which totaled just $78 million, posted the lowest numbers since September 5-7, 2008. That's not good news. The leader of the pack was New Year's Eve, a romantic comedy releasing well in advance of its holiday. With just $13.5 million, the star-filled ensemble picture performed short of expectations that had the film inching closer to $20 million.

In second place, the R-rated babysitting comedy The Sitter grabbed $10 million. So-so viewer feedback, as evidenced by the movie's C+ CinemaScore, could have this movie hurting in coming weeks. However, a small budget and healthy returns from younger moviegoers could make the Jonah Hill starrer profitable for Fox.

With no new family films, existing fare posted strong holds. Arthur Christmas dropped just 10% to $6.6 million as the titular holiday approaches. One spot below, Hugo fell 19% to $6.1 million. The Martin Scorsese-directed picture reportedly cost over $100 million, so its U.S. total of $33 million to date is far behind where such movies usually are after three weeks. The Muppets continued its trend of bigger week-to-week drops with a 36% dive to $7 million. Happy Feet Two held on in the top ten, sliding to eighth place with $3.7 million and a 36% decrease in receipts.

New specialty pictures fared much better than wide ones. In eight locations, Young Adult nabbed $40,000 per theatre. The espionage thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy averaged $75,000 per screen in half the locations. Both movies' debuts put them in a good position for expansion and awards season. Finally, We Need to Talk about Kevin, which seemed to inspire a "love it or hate it" critical reaction, had a softer $24,000 debut playing on one screen. The indie The Descendants added 300 theatres to go up .9% from last week and add another $4.8 million to its $23 million total. The push for The Artist is still heating up. Its 38% improvement from last week, as well as its $18,000 per-screen average, show this black-and-white silent feature has a lot of momentum.

This Friday, another family picture, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, will add to the already-saturated kid market. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows will provide some action fun, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol will have a limited, IMAX-only release.

'Immortals' rule the box office

By Sarah Sluis

The 3D swords-and-sandals epic Immortals outperformed industry expectations and finished with $32 million. Young filmgoers, who haven't been turning out in force lately, returned for the picture, which may have been perceived as offering more value with all its special effects. 3D, too, did well, accounting for 66% of the total. Distributor Relativity Media pulled off its biggest debut ever, but the expensive film will still have to do well in secondary markets in order to pull in a profit.

Eking out a second place finish, Jack and Jill debuted surprisingly high, to the tune of $26 million. Audiences who grew up with Sandler didn't abandon him. 52% of audiences were over 25. The PG-rated comedy also got 52% of its business from families, indicating that the all-ages rating was a savvy move.

Puss in Boots finished neck-and-neck with Jack and Jill, earning an estimated $25.5 million. In its third week, it dipped just 23%. Despite debuting to just $34 million, the CG-animated movie earned three times that much in three weeks. This is an unusual multiple to achieve, but one that DreamWorks Animation consistently pulls off for its titles. With over $100 million in the bank, Puss in Boots doesn't have a lot to worry about when Happy Feet 2 joins the animated fray this Friday.

Leonardo DiCaprio-starring J. Edgar had a respectable finish of $11.4 million. Releasing in less than 2,000 locations, the biopic's per-screen average of $6,000 strikes an optimistic note. However, this
specialty/awards title has an uphill battle ahead of it. Only 40% of critics rated the movie positive, compared to the 91% positive rating of this Friday's opener, The Descendants. Director Clint Eastwood appears to have hit another double or triple, not the home run it needs for a big Oscar presence.

Melancholia, the end-of-the-world meditation from director Lars von Trier, opened with a $14,000 per-screen average in nineteen locations. Given the large number of theatres showing the drama, the Kirsten Dunst starrer performed well. Werner Herzog's Into the Abyss came up with $4,200 per location in twelve theatres. The documentary, which focuses on the death penalty, may not be as enticing a subject as his 3D spelunking doc Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Paramount Vantage's Like Crazy picked up the pace in its third week, netting half a million and going up 97% from the previous week. Now playing in 70 theatres, the romance wrangled an impressive $7,500 per location.

This Wednesday, The Descendants will get a head start on the weekend. Starting Thursday at midnight The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part One) will ravage audiences, and families will have another animated option, Happy Feet Two.

Simba's back with surprising $29.3 million weekend for 'Lion King'

By Sarah Sluis

Seventeen years after the animated behemoth released, The Lion King in 3D easily assumed first place with $29.3 million. In comparison, 2009's 3D double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, also a re-release, opened to just $12.4 million. Why such a difference? For one, The Lion King had a much longer waiting period between its release and re-release. There were no (theatrical) sequels to give audiences more time with Simba, Nala, Timon and Pumbaa, whereas the Toy Story re-release was more of a prelude to the next installment, Toy Story 3. Second, The Lion Kingplay is still running on Broadway--a sign of the series' continued appeal. Finally, the animated feature was returning in a wide-open market. The last family movie opened five weeks ago, Spy Kids 3, and the critically panned movie has barely earned $30 million since. The only other kid movie, period, still in release is the two-month-old The Smurfs. No wonder families were flocking to the G-rated title. There's nothing else out there.

Contagion moved down one rung to second place, keeping its second week fall to 35% and earning another $14.4 million. Good reviews and the interest of adult audiences should keep this film in the top ten for weeks to come.

Drive opened in third place with $11 million. The Ryan Gosling getaway car drive movie is extremely polarizing, which is a good thing in my book (I'm one of the movie's fans). Though critics gave the movie a 92% positive rating and 81% of Rotten Tomatoes audiences liked the movie, it received only a C- Cinemascore rating--extremely low for a film that has people gushing with praise. An un-Hollywood ending, violence, and the movie's '80s music score were among the things that confused audiences, and judging from these comments walkouts and surprised looks weren't unusual. It's pretty rare for a movie to generate this diversity of responses, so the box office totals of coming weeks will show if this will spell success or disaster for the unusual action thriller.

The remake of Straw Dogs failed to draw in new audiences. Only $5 million in tickets were sold, showing that not every remake of a revered film will result in a home run the second time around.

I Don't Know How She Does It had a tepid debut of $4.5 million. The target audience (80% female, 50% over 35) isn't known for seeing movies opening weekend, so it could hold well in coming weeks, but this movie is the kind that will heat up once it hits Netflix. The working moms in the movie were probably too busy taking their tykes to a showing of The Lion King.

This Friday, the slick sports drama Moneyball will hit theatres along with Abduction, starring Twlight's Taylor Lautner. Rounding out the offerings will be the action thriller Killer Elite and the dolphin-with-prosthetic-fin tearjerker Dolphin Tale.

'The Help' steps up to first place

By Sarah Sluis

In a late summer coup, The Help rose a spot to first place in its second week, taking home $20.4 million. The Civil Rights era drama with a touch of comedy lost just 21.4% of its audience. Earlier this summer, Bridesmaids managed the same feat, dipping just 20.4% its second outing. Other female-driven summer releases of years past, like Julie & Julia and Eat Pray Love, fell 35-50% their sophomore sessions, proving that a strong hold takes not only a female-driven audience but extraordinarily positive word-of-mouth. Though the end of the summer is approaching, The Help should continue to make waves at the box office. While New York and Los Angeles typically have the highest-grossing theatres in the nation, The Help has drawn support from theatres in Jackson, Mississippi, where the film is set, and Southern audiences in Memphis, Tennessee.

The four new releases this week couldn't summon audiences. The highest-grossing of the bunch, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, finished third with $12 million. As kids go back to school, Spy Kids won't be able to count on the high weekday grosses that made earlier youth-targeted pics so profitable. With poor reviews and box-office performance, this may be the end of the Spy Kids franchise.

Conan the Barbarian, considered one of the frontrunners, landed fourth with $10 million. Audiences over 25 were the main attendees of the movie, when really a younger audience would have sparked to the content. A lack of awareness of the first film probably turned off younger audiences, as well as the casting of Jason Momoa, a relative unknown.

Ending up a disappointing sixth, Fright Night debuted to just $7.9 million. Again, the majority of the audience was comprised of viewers over 25 who may have been aware of the first film, which came out in the 1980s. Critics liked the movie, but attendees weren't as excited. Those polled gave it a B- score overall.

The romantic, occasionally a wee melodramatic One Day failed to lure away female audiences from The Help. The Anne Hathaway-Jim Sturgess romance earned $5.1 million, though its sub-2,000 screens meant its $2,900 per-screen average was higher than films further up in the top ten.

On the specialty circuit, historical war film Amigo earned $4,000 per screen on ten screens. Mozart's Sister, which had charming reviews, averaged $4,700 per screen on seven screens.

This Friday, horror flick Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, actioner Colombiana and comedy Our Idiot Brother will provide a mix of genre and adult-skewing fare to audiences in search of some air-conditioned entertainment.

'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' summits the top ten

By Sarah Sluis

With little advance awareness, most prognosticators were cautious about Rise of the Planet of the Apes' prospects. The appeal of dystopian futures in movies, and, let's face it, CG primates, drew more viewers than predicted, to the tune of $54 million. Though the opening weekend was less than 2001's Tim Burton remake Planet of the Apes, and both had similar production budgets (around $100 million), most seem to be calling Rise the success. The current release has had better reviews, receiving an 81% positive aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes to the 2001 film's 45% positive rating. Warm ratings and a decent box office could make Rise the first of many Planet of the Apes reboots.

The Change-Up, however, was not as lucky as Apes. The comedy's $13.6 million opening weekend was the lowest of any R-rated comedy this summer. Paring an R-rating with the Freaky Friday set-up, which has mainly been used in kid-friendly PG tales, appears to have confused audiences and turned them off. Frankly, the movie's posters made my nose wrinkle in disgust instead of laughter. They were offensive in the most boring, tired way possible, which didn't bode well for the comedy. Surprisingly, 59% of the audience was women, with all ages represented.

Rachel Weisz's star turn in The Whistleblower averaged $8,300 per screen on seven screens, a modest debut for the movie, which will probably grab more viewers once it hits Netflix. Gun Hill Road, which centers on a released prisoner who discovers his son is transitioning to female, boasted the highest per-screen average for a specialty release, $12,600. Oscilloscope's Bellflower, a "stew of dark fantasies and youthful gonzo ambition," according to THR's John DeFore, also did well, averaging $12,000 per screen.

A number of specialty releases gained ground this week as they expanded their releases. The Future rose 213% as it went from one to 17 locations, averaging $5,000 per screen. Sony Pictures Classics' The Guard remained strong, rising 152% and only dropping its per-screen average by half, to $10,000, at each of the 19 locations. Fox Searchlight's Another Earth more than doubled its locations and rose 51% while maintaining a $3,000 per-screen average. Finally, Weinstein Co.'s Sarah's Key enjoyed a 45% boost when it doubled the number of locations, finishing with a $7,900 per-screen average and $532,000, the highest of any of the expanding specialty releases.

This Wednesday, female-dominated historical pic The Help will release, offering a breath of fresh air in a summer market dominated by broad comedy and action. The comedy 30 Minutes or Less, horror sequel Final Destination 5, and Glee the 3D Concert Movie will round out the offerings on Friday.

'Captain America' takes the lead as 'Harry Potter' plummets

By Sarah Sluis

Given Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2's record-breaking $169 million weekend, it's no wonder the highly anticipated film fell 71% to $48 million its second weekend. It's the same fate suffered by The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which also plunged 70% its second time around. While huge drops usually indicate a movie was all marketing and no substance, they also hold true for fan movies. No serious Harry Potter fan would see the movie a week after it came out. It's pretty respectable that Deathly Hallows Part 2 earned $48 million, in fact, which is more than most movies' opening weekends. If Deathly Hallows Part 2 follows Twilight's trend, it will level its fall in a few weeks and then benefit from repeat viewings and interest from casual moviegoers.

With Harry Potter plummeting, Captain America: The First Avenger easily summited the first place spot with a $65.8 million opening. Audiences appeared to have no superhero fatigue. Thor and X-Men: First Class each had a different take on the genre, so that kind of creativity has helped keep the superheroes fresh.

Friends with Benefits grabbed $18.5 million and third place. Despite better reviews, the Mila Kunis/Justin Timberlake rom com earned less than January's No Strings Attached. The audience for Friends with Benefits skewed less female and slightly younger than the January sex comedy. Good reviews, however, could help this movie remain a popular pick in weeks to come.

Fox Searchlight's heavily promoted indie release Another Earth earned $19,600 per screen at four locations, an auspicious start. The perennial appeal of Holocaust-era films, however, meant the film was outshone by Sarah's Key. The Kristin Scott Thomas-starring tale about a woman's investigation into her family's past averaged $23,400 per screen at five locations. In the top ten, Midnight in Paris continued its run as this summer's indie darling by accruing $1.8 million, a 2% increase from last week.

This Friday will be packed. Cowboys & Aliens will set its sights on the action/sci-fi crowd. Crazy, Stupid, Love, with an all-ages cast, will try to grab multiple generations with its romance and comedy, and The Smurfs will turn the big screen blue.

'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' maps out a first-place weekend

By Sarah Sluis

It's been eight years since Johnny Depp first donned black eyeliner in his memorable portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow. Now, the fourth film in the series, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, will splash into 4,155 theatres. 65% of the theatres will show the film in 3D, along with a record-breaking 257 IMAX screens. The past two Pirates movies have debuted well over $100 million, but a softer $90-100 million opening is expected for the latest installment, which "confirms that the series' charm has worn off," according to FJI critic Ethan Alter. The film's action sequences lack that trademark mix of "combination of thrills and laughs" that initially won over audiences," he says, and in general the movie is "plodding and heavy-handed when it should be breezy and light."

Bridesmaids (2,937 theatres) has been ahead of Thor (3,924 theatres) since Monday, due to its strong word-of-mouth endorsements. On Monday, the female-driven comedy earned just 5% more than Thor, but by Wednesday Bridesmaids pulled in 28% more than the comic book film. Based on these results, Bridesmaids should be a shoo-in for second place.

The specialty film to watch this week is Midnight in Paris (6 theatres). Woody Allen's "Parisian fantasia" has won over critics, which have given the time-travel movie a 90% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Some have called it his best film in years. Owen Wilson stars as a writer entranced by the city of light, and the film is studded with well-known faces like Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, French First Lady Carla Bruni, Marion Cotillard, and Michael Sheen. These reviews should give the movie a lifetime gross closer to Vicky Cristina Barcelona's $23.2 million than You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger's $3.2 million.

On Monday, we'll see if the performance of Pirates ensures a fifth installment, and if Bridesmaids maintains its audience in its second outing.

'Rio' narrowly swoops over 'Madea's Big Happy Family'

By Sarah Sluis

The round-the-world hit Rio enjoyed its second week at the top stateside. The 3D, CG-animated tale of a bird going back to his homeland dipped 32% to $26.8 million, landing just above Madea's Big Happy Family.

Tyler Perry's latest Madea comedy opened to $25.7 million. The Madea movies have opened anywhere from $20.1 million (Meet the Browns) to an out-of-the-park $41 million (Madea Goes to Jail), so this number falls near the average. Like most Perry movies, the audience was primarily black, female, and over 25�perhaps these viewers see shades of their own grandmothers in the comically exaggerated Madea?

Water for Elephants opened above expectations, debuting to $17.5 million. Despite the presence of Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson, the audience skewed more toward Reese Witherspoon fans: 70% of the audience was over 25, and the same percentage was female.

The Earth Day release African Cats opened to $6.4 million, slightly better than the $6 million open of last year's Disneynature release Oceans. These nature documentaries have played very well over the long haul, so Cats should total at least $20 million before it leaves theatres.

Another seasonal release, Hop, added 16% from last week thanks to its proximity to Easter Sunday, ending with $12.6 million. The CG/live-action hybrid earned its highest numbers the Friday and Saturday before Easter, dropping on the holiday itself, when kids were presumably occupied with Easter egg hunts and bunny visits of their own.

Despite all the product placements and tie-ins, Director Morgan Spurlock's documentary POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold had a solid, not stellar, $7,500 per-screen open. However, the 18-location release was a bit wide compared to most specialty releases, so perhaps it will hold well in coming weeks. In comparison, another Sony Pictures Classics release, Incendies, opened to $18,200 per screen, but only had three screens to fill with ticket-buyers.

The biggest mover-and-shaker among specialty releases was the ten-week-old doc I Am, which went up 572% as it added ten locations. I'm sure director Tom Shadyac's April 20^th appearance on "Oprah" had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Meek's Cutoff is also performing well, going up 180% as it tripled the number of theatres in its three-week-old release. The Oregon Trail drama earned a $6,500 per-screen average.

This Friday, car actioner Fast Five will lead the pack, followed by Disney's bid for teens, Prom, horror comedy Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, and animated sequel Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil.

'Rio' soars to $40 million

By Sarah Sluis

For the first time in 2011, the box office was up from 2010 year-over-year. Back in January and even in February, the holdover success of 2009 release Avatar was to blame for the lower 2011 numbers, but then the excuses ran out. However, 2011's lower grosses may also be related to last year's initial crush of 3D films such as Alice in Wonderland, which drew many audiences interested in experiencing the extra dimension.

The CG-animated Rio easily grabbed the first-place perch, earning $40 million. Although the number is lower than other Blue Sky Animation movies, including 2002's Ice Age, the growing receipts from foreign markets make up for any softness in the U.S. In just two weeks, Rio's already earned $128 million abroad. Many U.S. students are on spring break this week, which should make the upcoming weekdays especially profitable.

The chorus of shrieks just wasn't that loud for Scream 4, which finished with $19.2 million, on the low side of expectations. In comparison, Scream 3 earned $34.7 million its opening weekend, the equivalent of more than $50 million today. Viewers over 25, familiar with the franchise, turned out in force, but the sequel had trouble attracting audiences in the 17-25 age range. Females, too, voted against the movie, comprising just 52% of the audience compared to the 60-70% that normally turns out. Scream 4 is part of a planned second trilogy, but these low numbers could grind the franchise to a halt.

With $3.9 million, the historical drama The Conspirator performed in line with expectations. By releasing in just 707 locations, its theatres were just as packed as Scream 4's. With its U.S.-specific subject, however, foreign prospects will be slim, which won't help offset the movie's reported $25 million budget.

Soul Surfer pulled ahead of Hanna during the films' second week. The inspirational sports tale dipped 30% to $7.4 million, while Hanna dove 40% to $7.3 million. Distributor FilmDistrict, which handles Soul Surfer, had another win with Insidious. The horror movie fell just 26% to $6.8 million, continuing its trend of low drops, which is atypical for scary movies.

Literary adaptation Atlas Shrugged: Part I finished in 14^th place with $1.6 million and a per-screen average on par with The Conspirator and Scream 4. Critics generally despised the movie but it remains to be seen if viewers felt the same. The tea party-leaning movie will be one to watch in coming weeks.

Specialty picture The Double Hour, running on goodwill from positive reviews (like this one from The New York Times), opened to a $15,000 per-screen average, a solid debut.

This Friday, Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattison run the circus in Water for Elephants. Tyler Perry strikes again with Madea's Big Happy Family, and the Disneynature wildlife documentary African Cats will stalk family audiences.

'Rio' should fly to the top, with 'Scream 4' close behind

By Sarah Sluis

On the heels of its record-breaking weekend overseas, Rio (3,826 theatres) will open stateside and ruffle the feathers of competing family flick Hop. The CG talking animal flick shows off Rio de Janeiro's beaches and favelas, leading critic Daniel Eagan to predict that "the action, slapstick, and irresistible images of Rio itself will delight children." The film's 3D should boost the box office, but it also adds to the story winningly, by "saving the big effects for special occasions like a fly-around of the Christ the Redeemer statue" and an "encounter with a table saw." Fox should expect at least $30 million this weekend, along with sizeable weekday returns from Spring-breaking kids.

The legendary Scream franchise returns with Scream 4 (3,305 theatres), the first of a planned trilogy of sequels. Veterans of the franchise (Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette) are paired with younger stars (Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere), a combination that will be sure to appeal to those who saw the first franchise in theatres as well as younger audiences that discovered the series on video. The movie's self-referential tone has gained some fans among critics, but the New York Times' Mike Hale is not one of them. "Scream 4 replaces the values of storytelling and suspense with the value of being in on the joke," he concludes. This revival of a decade-old franchise should grab at least $20 million at the box office, reflecting a smart move by parent distributor Weinstein Co.

Focusing on the trial of Mary Surratt for her role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, The Conspirator (707 theatres) has a "relevancy to recent happenings [which] gives an added frisson of
interest to the story," notes critic Shirley Sealy. With a cast led by Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson and Kevin Kline, director Robert Redford "puts together some fine actors giving exceptionally fine performances." This "emotionally powerful story" should crack the top ten with a number in the low single-digit millions.

Targeting those subscribing to tea party politics, Atlas Shrugged: Part I (300 theatres) could be a surprise hit, or, as THR predicts, a flop. Variety notes that the movie is accounting for 15% of advance sales on Fandango. Never underestimate a group's ability to mobilize.

For those living in New York City, the Danish war documentary Armadillo (1 theatre) offers a gripping look into life as a soldier in Afghanistan. I spoke highly of the movie yesterday, and it's a must for fans of Restrepo.

On Monday, we'll see if Rio was able to soar above the $30 million mark and if Scream 4 scared both veteran and newbie audiences.

Second week at the top for 'Hop'

By Sarah Sluis

The animated Easter bunny picture Hop enjoyed its second week in first place, dropping 42% to $21.7 million. Its performance is on par with March's Rango, but Hop will probably do better financially due to the live-action/CG hybrid's lower budget. With two more weekends until Easter, Hop should continue to play well but will have tough competition next week when Rio, which opened #1 in a number of international markets this weekend, debuts in the U.S. this Friday.

Russell Brand provides the voice of the bunny in Hop, but his other new release, Arthur, opened to a disappointing $12.6 million. In comparison, Get Him to the Greek, which featured Brand as a co-star, opened to $17 million last year. Critics were not kind to the tale of a lovable billionaire alcoholic, giving it just 25% positive Rotten Tomatoes rating. Brand, a beloved U.K. star, has been trying to break out in America for several years. If the movie plays well in the U.K., Arthur's flat performance stateside will confirm that Brand just can't cross over in a live-action vehicle--although I don't understand why, because I find him extremely funny.

Hanna opened third with $12.3 million, an impressive opening for an assassin film intended for a more arty, indie crowd. Focus Features went for the same auteur action formula with last fall's The American, which opened to $13.1 million with a considerably bigger star on the marquee, George Clooney. Teen star Saoirse Ronan will be seen next in The Hobbit, if you believe what you see on IMDB (she hasn't been confirmed in the role yet).

Following closely in fourth place, Soul Surfer rode in with $11.1 million. The largely young, female audience raved about the film, giving the religious-themed sports picture an A+ CinemaScore rating. The areas in the U.S. farthest from the coasts did the best, including Nashville and Oklahoma City.

The loser of this week's quartet of new releases was Your Highness, which finished with $9.5 million. The stoner adventure film underperformed, earning just a fraction of the $23 million opening weekend attained by director David Gordon Green's last comedy, Pineapple Express.

One spot above Your Highness, haunted house movie Insidious did what horror movies almost never do. Instead of dropping 50-70%, the movie's audience went down just 27% to $9.7 million, another win for distributor FilmDistrict, which picked up the movie for a song and spent heavily on marketing.

Among specialty releases, IMAX film Born to be Wild made the biggest splash, earning $850,000 from 206 locations. The well-reviewed Meek's Cutoff proved to be more of a critic's gem than an audience favorite, settling with just $11,000 per screen on two theatres, a modest debut for a film with a 86% positive Rotten Tomatoes rating among critics.

This Friday, American audiences will be able to catch Rio, which had the highest international debut of the year. Horror fans can white-knuckle it for Scream 4, and historical drama The Conspirator will open in select theatres.

'Hop' skips and jumps to first place

By Sarah Sluis

Families turned out en masse for Hop, earning the Easter Bunny flick $38.1 million, the highest opening weekend of the year. A number in the high $20 millions was expected, so this opening was leaps and bounds ahead of projections. Critics may have sniffed and grimaced, but the CG/live-action hybrid appears to be a winning genre at the box office, not to mention more economical and quicker to produce than an animation-only movie. Hop opened above CG/live-action mixes G-Force and Beverly Hills Chihuahua, but failed to outperform the holy grail of the medium, Alvin and the Chipmunks. Easter is the last Sunday of April, giving Hop three more weekends to take advantage of its holiday tie-in.

Sci-fi actioner Source Code debuted in second place with $15 million. Similarly sci-fi infused titles The Adjustment Bureau and Limitless both opened at $18 million, so Summit probably had higher hopes for the "Groundhog Day on an exploding train" flick.

Haunted house movie Insidious finished with $13.4 million. With 500 fewer theatres than Source Code, the horror pic actually had a higher per-screen average than the action movie. According to Variety, Insidious cost less than $1 million to produce but had $20 million of marketing behind it. The release is the first for distributor FilmDistrict, which is starting out strong with an unusual budget/marketing ratio.

The PG-13 version of The King's Speech didn't seem to revive the box office. The picture dropped 23% to $1.1 million, the same drop as the previous week. Given the millions The Weinstein Co. spend on new prints and publicity, the re-rated version doesn't seem to be an (instant) success, although the distributor noted that more conservative markets like Salt Lake City, Utah, showed the greatest improvements.

The movers and shakers in the specialty market were Win Win and Jane Eyre. Both films have increased week-over-week since they opened three and four weeks ago, respectively. Jane Eyre went up 27% to $1.2 million, doubling the amount of theatres in its release. Win Win skyrocketed 153% to $1.1 million, increasing the theatres in its release by a factor of six. The Oscar-winning Best Foreign Language Film In a Better World opened to an $8,800 per-screen average. The Danish movie debuted lower than last year's winner, The Secret in Their Eyes.

This Friday 80s comedy remake Arthur will open widest, followed by stoner comedy Your Highness, girl assassin pic Hanna, and Soul Surfer, the tale of a teen surfer who survived a shark attack.