'Oz the Great and Powerful' casts spell over box office

Oz the Great and Powerful posted the highest opening weekend of 2013 with $80.2 million. Overseas, it earned nearly as much, $70 million. While the fantasy didn't capture the lightning in a bottle that was Disney's 2010 offering, Alice in Wonderland, Oz performed much better than the studio's March offering last year, the expensive flop John Carter. Disney was able to corral both
families and couples for the tentpole. 43% of attendees were couples, and 41% were families. That continues the trend of trying to expand the audience for G-rated or PG-rated films that are considered of a particularly high quality (e.g. Pixar) or effects-laden.

Faced with its better-reviewed competition, Jack the Giant Slayer did a nosedive to $10 million, a 63% drop from the previous week. With that poor hold, this $200+ million movie will end up with $60 million or so domestically, a big writedown for Warner Bros.

This weekend also brought bad news for Dead Man Down, which opened to $5.3 million.

Someone decided that adult-aimed R-rated action thrillers were a slam dunk at the box office, because all of a sudden there's tons of them, and they're all tanking. Dead Man Down joins other 2013 R-rated action misfires Bullet to the Head ($4.55 million opening), The Last Stand ($6.3 million), and Parker ($7 million). Ouch.

There was good news for some older releases with staying power. Identity Thief moved down to third place for the first time since its opening five weeks ago. With another $6.3 million and a $116 million total to date, the feature is a certified comedy success. The Nicholas Sparks romance Safe Haven has also shown strong staying power, doubling its $30 million opening with a $62 million gross to date. This
weekend, it earned $3.8 million while posting just a 39% drop for the second week in a row, indicating that it will hang out in the top ten--and definitely the top twenty--for some time.

Emperor had a respectable debut in limited release, topping $1 million with a $4,000 per-screen average. It may have been a respite for adult males who were sick of all the action films dominating the box office.

Somebody Up There Likes Me posted the best debut for a specialty release. On one screen, it earned $38,500, and it has some good reviews (like this one) to back up its strong box-office performance.

This Friday, Steve Carell and Jim Carrey play battling magicians in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, and Halle Berry stars as a 911 operator in the thriller The Call.