‘No Good Deed’ does solid business

Thriller No Good Deed clocked in at No. 1 this weekend, raking in $24.5 million from 2,175 locations. Its opening-weekend figure was a bit larger than expected; many pundits had pegged the film for a bow in the mid to high-teens. Chalk Deed’s neat success up to stars Taraji P. Henson and, most especially, Idris Elba. Sixty percent of the film’s viewers were female, and 59 percent were over the age of 30 – in other words, “The Wire” and Mandela actor’s target fan base. Interestingly (perhaps depressingly), No Good Deed is the first film to open over $20 million since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bowed to a much stronger $65 million a month ago.

In second place, Dolphin Tale 2 earned an O.K. $16.5 million. Though its opening-weekend gross was down 14 percent from that of its predecessor, unlike the first Dolphin Tale, D2 didn’t have 3D ticket sales to help boost returns. Taking this into account, the film’s debut haul is roughly on par with 2011’s Dolphin Tale. Audiences enjoyed their second outing with Winter the dolphin, awarding the movie an A CinemaScore grade. Lacking little family-friendly competition, Dolphin Tale 2 should hold well enough to tally out to $50 or $55 million by the end of its theatrical run.

Third, fourth and fifth places were each occupied by a familiar holdover: Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Let’s Be Cops, respectively. Galaxy officially crossed the $300 million mark on Saturday, the first film to do so since Frozen skated past the benchmark in January. The Marvel flick grossed a little over $8 million this weekend, while the Turtles raked in a little under $5 million and the Cops a little north of $4 million.

Specialty film The Drop rounded out the top 5 with a $4.2 million haul. That’s a strong beginning for the limited release set to expand this coming weekend, to roughly 1,000 theatres.

Finally, The Skeleton Twins, starring fan favorites Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, impressed with a $411,000 tally from 15 locations. The film’s $27,400 per-theatre average bodes well for its nationwide release September 26.