‘Despicable Me 2’ continues to dominate box office

 

As has
become the norm in Hollywood, the sequels prevailed this weekend. The biggest
grosser was Despicable Me 2, earning
the top spot for the second week in a row. Coming in at number two was Grown Ups 2, the Adam Sandler and Co.
comedy. Pacific Rim, which had been
gaining buzz due to its original monsters vs. robots concept, was left in third
place, underperforming at the box office.

Despicable Me 2 likely earned its second weekend at
number one due to great reviews and its family-friendly content (minions!),
which both children and their parents can enjoy. The film took in about $45 million
this weekend, a 46 percent drop from its opening. This is a similar decline to
the other animated feature still in major release, Monsters University, which
fell 45 percent its second week in theatres. This data puts Despicable Me 2 on track to earn a total
of around $350 million this summer, and to probably become the second-highest
earning movie of the year. The film has so far grossed about $230 million
domestically, or 91 percent of what the original, Despicable Me, earned throughout its entire run. All this success
undoubtedly means that Universal will be rolling out a Despicable Me 3 in a few years’ time.

Despite Grown Ups 2’s extremely negative
reviews—the film only scored a 7 percent critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes—the
film has exceeded expectations at the box office, coming in just $2.25 million
behind Despicable Me 2. The $42.5
million three-day haul is actually better than Grown Ups’ 2010 opening weekend. These earnings can probably be
chalked up to the fact that, despite the film’s crude humor and PG-13 rating,
the opening weekend audiences were more than 50 percent female and more than 50
percent under 25, indicating that many families went to see the film together. Grown Ups 2’s successful debut (the
second highest of any of Adam Sandler’s live-action productions), indicates
that the comedian’s post-Jack and Jill
slump is officially over. Grown Ups 2
has now overtaken The Hangover Part III
to have the largest opening weekend for a comedy this year.

Unfortunately,
that leaves Pacific Rim to place
third this weekend. Despite pretty positive reviews from both critics and audience
members, the film just didn’t have enough appeal to win over a wide demographic
of viewers. With no bankable stars and a heavy reliance on CGI-created action
scenes, the film predictably drew crowds from the fanboy sector, but couldn’t
muster up nearly as many older or female audience members. The $38.3 million
opening is by no means a flop, but it is under what Warner Bros. had hoped for,
especially considering that another recent original sci-fi film, World War Z, scored $66 million its
first weekend in theaters. Of course, World
War Z had the benefit of Brad Pitt and was based on a book with built-in
hype. It is now likely that Pacific Rim
will earn a total of about $110 million domestically, and will rely heavily on
the international market to break even on its reportedly $190 million
production budget.

The female
buddy-comedy The Heat, starring
Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, took in $14 million in its third weekend
out, putting its total gross thus far at over $112 million and keeping it on
track to become the highest-grossing comedy of the summer. Disney’s flop The Lone Ranger continues to struggle along
at fifth place in its second week in theatres. The film has only made $71
million so far, or a third of its $215 million budget. It seems as though Jack
Sparrow just doesn’t translate to the Old West. 

'Act of Valor' shines during Academy Awards weekend

As expected, The Artist landed the Best Picture Oscar this Sunday at the Academy Awards. The silent era-set tale has earned $31.8 million to date. In comparison, the middling war-action picture Act of Valor attracted more moviegoers than expected and earned $24.7 million, an amount it took The Artist three months to reach. Act of Valor's primarily male audience gave the war flick its version of a statuette--an "A" exit rating.

The disparity between art films beloved by critics and the Academy and commercial films is once again in full relief. In 2009 and 2010, the first years allowing ten Best Picture nominees (since 1943), half the movies had earned $100 million--and still others were close to that figure. This year, only The Help has topped $100 million, with $169 million in total. The next runner-up is War Horse, with a mere $79 million.

Of course, there's still time for some movies to make more money. The Artist will expand into 2,000 theatres this weekend. Still, expectations should be modest. Last year, The King's Speech had the most momentum after its nomination. It earned only 15% of its total after it actually won. Part of the reason the Academy expanded the number of Best Picture nominees was to include a mix of art films and those that performed well at the box office. It was hoped that very little and very big films might be included more frequently. This past year had no Inception, no Avatar, no The Blind Side. Without a blockbuster or crossover success in the running, the awards don't have as much appeal to general audiences. No wonder I heard many people--casual and more serious moviegoers--complain about the irrelevance of this year's Oscars. Although the ceremony included many people from more recognizable movies--like the cast of Bridesmaids, who presented awards--the awards themselves honored movies many people didn't and/or won't see. It's too bad there wasn't a well-regarded action picture in the running. True to the Academy's safe choices, an edgy movie like Drive can only get into the contest with a roundabout nomination, like its nod in Sound Editing.

Perhaps due in part to the lower-profile Oscar ceremony, box office as a whole was up from last year. After Act of Valor, Tyler Perry's Good Deeds suffered from the absence of Madea and brought in just $16 million. Down in eighth and ninth place, Wanderlust and Gone did even worse. The Paul Rudd/Jennifer Aniston comedy tallied up just $6.6 million, despite a 60% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It may fall under the "rent it" category for many viewers.  Gone likewise didn't connect with audiences, which gave it just a C+ in exit polls. The Amanda Seyfried kidnapping thriller finished with just $5 million.

A number of Oscar nominees posted gains this weekend. Best Foreign Language Film winner A Separation went up 36% to earn $423,000. Foreign Language nominee In Darkness received a 10% boost, grossing $91,000. Bullhead, which was nominated in the same category, posted a 28% gain for a total of $41,000. My Week with Marilyn expanded slightly and posted a 58% gain to $313,000. The Artist, which earned five wins, went up 23% to $3 million.

This Friday, Oscar winner The Artist will go big in an attempt to capitalize on its win. It will be joined by Dr. Seuss adaptation The Lorax and the one-crazy-party teen comedy Project X.

Friendly competition between 'The Social Network,' 'Let Me In'

By Sarah Sluis

Led by a press barrage and endless speculation on the film's awards prospects and accuracy, The Social Network will hit 2,771 theatres and, some say, earn in the high $20 million range. The semi-biographical movie follows the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), from his Harvard days to his

company's growth in Silicon Valley. Critic Dana Stevens at Slate exclaimed, "What a joy to sit in a theater and be engaged, surprised, challenged, amused." Under the direction of David Fincher and with the verbal stylings of Aaron Sorkin, the movie is a "social satire, a miniaturist comedy of manners, and a Greek tragedy; it bites off a lot, at times more than it can chew. But even the unmasticated morsels are pretty tasty."

A remake of the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In, Let Me In will bow in 2,020 theatres. While many Hollywood remakes of foreign films aren't treated very kindly by critics,

this vampire horror film has gotten props from reviewers who applauded its consistency, if not its originality. "Not only does it refrain from softening or dumbing down the story of a persecuted youngster who finds his soul mate in a vampire," critic Maitland McDonagh praises, "it incorporates additional material taken from John Ajvide Lindqvist's deeply disturbing source novel." It seems director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) borrowed something good and, harder, kept it good.

The much-delayed Case 39 (2,211 theatres) starring Renee Zellweger will go head-to-head with Let Me In. Both films have been tracking in the $10 million range, and with slightly different

audiences--Case 39 has been attracting Hispanic audiences while arthouse lovers want to catch the foreign vampire film remake. Interestingly, the two films center on innocent/violent girls. In Let Me In, a boy befriends a vampire girl, while in Case 39 Zellweger adopts a girl who turns out to be evil.

After being available on iTunes for almost a month, Freakonomics will hit 20 theatres. If the documentary performs well, it will quell fears that opening multiple windows diminishes, not intensifies, box-office returns. Critic Ethan Alter found the film uneven, with some segments stronger than others.

Two of next week's films, romantic comedy Life as We Know It and feel-good horse racing film Secretariat, will offer sneak peeks on Saturday in roughly 800 theatres, hoping to get a leg up on positive word-of-mouth. Studios don't always release the earnings from these sneaks, but they could tip the scales during their openings next Friday.

On Monday, I'll circle back to see The Social Network's impact on returning films such as Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and The Town, and see which horror-thriller, Case 39 or Let Me In, lured more audiences.

Friday Halloween scares off moviegoers

By Sarah Sluis

Halloween decimated the box office this weekend.  Returning films showed huge drops on Friday, and
new releases opened to disappointing numbers that they were unable to recoup on Saturday and Sunday.  #1 release High School Musical 3, for example, dropped 90% on Friday, earning around $1 million, but then dropped only around 40% from last week for both Saturday and Sunday, earning $14 million for those two days to bring its weekend total to $15 million.  With a Halloween-free weekend, the film would have been on track to make over $20 million.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno opened at #2 with a less-than-stellar take of $10.6 million.  As with other teen-oriented flicks that receive advance buzz for their lewdness (i.e. American Pie), web comments suggest that exhibitors took extra steps to prevent underage patrons from viewing the film, including checking IDs at point of entry, that might have affected the film's gross.  Zack and Miri will have competition next week with R-rated, less objectionably titled Role Models, which might cut into the film's ability to rebound next week.

Horror picture The Haunting of Molly Hartley earned $6 million at #5 (coming in below Saw V's $10 million take at #3).  Both films did comparatively well on Halloween, earning more than #1 release HSM3, but even the scare pictures earned less on Halloween than they did on Saturday and Sunday.

Changeling pulled in $9.4 million, earning $5k per theatre; however, in terms of a Clint Eastwood or Angelina Jolie vehicle, the results are underwhelming.  The film still has room to grow, both from
increasing the scale of its release and by rebounding from the Halloween weekend.  THR's Risky Business blog, however, attributes the film's relatively weak opening to the tepid critical response of the film, noting a correlation between the RottenTomatoes scores of Eastwood's films and their box-office revenues.

Other films in the top ten included Beverly Hills Chihuahua (#6, $4.7 million), now only $8 million under Eagle Eye's total of $94 million and inching towards $100 million.  The Secret Life of Bees dropped only 33% to finish at #7 with $4 million.  Action/crime pictures Max Payne (#8, $3.7 million),  Eagle Eye (#9, $3.4 million), and Pride & Glory (#10, $3.2 million) rounded out the bottom five.  Unlike the films in the top five, these films had below-average box-office drops, averaging 30-40% less than the previous week.

This week Madagascar 2 will release, competing for the G-rated audience, along with R-rated Role Models, specialty picture and European sensation The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Soul Men, and Repo: The Genetic Opera.  Check back on Friday for a further rundown of the week's releases.

Full box office results viewable here.