OPENINGS: The biggest story of the weekend took place off American shores, as IRON MAN 3 (Disney) topped all expectations to open with a fantastic $195.3M in 42 territories (China and Russia are the notable ones still to come). That’s higher than the $185.1M opening for The Avengers (in 39 territories that didn’t include Japan as well as China and Russia), which went on to earn $888M overseas. Iron Man 2 had a comparatively puny $100.3M overseas launch (in 53 territories), which puts Iron 3 into a new league. The US expectation for Iron 3 had been for a moderate increase over Iron 2‘s $128.1M start, but now all bets are off. (Avengers set the US opening weekend record last year with $207.4M.)
Things were much quieter in the US, where PAIN & GAIN (Paramount) is currently claiming a $20M weekend that’s unlikely to hold up tomorrow, since the studio is–ahem–reporting an unconvincingly low 30% drop on Sunday–even after the movie fell 2% on Saturday, a sure sign of terrible word of mouth. THE BIG WEDDING (Lionsgate) is such a flop at $7.5M that its studio didn’t even bother lying, with an acknowledged 40% Sunday drop even after a 22% rise on Saturday.
Robert Redford’s THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (Sony Pictures Classics) jumped into semi-wide release at 807 theatres, but it won’t be keeping those theatres long with a $1500 per-screen average. (In comparison, even The Big Wedding had a $2400 average.)
HOLDOVERS: The news was bad on all fronts for OBLIVION (Universal), even though it was #2 for the weekend. It fell 53% in the US to $17.4M, for a $64M total that’s unlikely to get beyond $100M. Far worse, it only made $12.8M overseas (in all major territories except China and Japan) for a $134.1M international total. It’s unlikely to get beyond $300M worldwide, and while that’s above the $216M glotal total for Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher, Oblivion also had double the production cost.
Other holdovers, including 42 (Warners), GI JOE: RETALIATION (Paramount/MGM), THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (Focus/Universal) and OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (FilmDistrict) all dropped 37-45% for the weekend, a standard hold when there’s nothing strong at the top of the list. The strongest holdover continued to be THE CROODS (DreamWorks Animation/20th), benefiting from a lack of family competition, which fell only 29% to $6.6M for a $163M US total, and also took in $13.1M overseas for an international total of $308M.
LIMITED RELEASE: A 363-theatre opening for MUD (Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions) yielded a $2.2M weekend with a decent $6K average. ARTHUR NEWMAN (Cinedigm), in 248 theatres, had one of the worst openings in recent memory with a $435 average–not quite the $206 average of Oogieloves territory, but too close. The weekend’s expansions were largely unimpressive or worse, as FILLY BROWN (Lionsgate) added 30% more screens but still fell 62% for the weekend with a $2200 average and DISCONNECT (LD) added 50% more theatres but only went up 4% for a $2400 average. Both THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST (IFC) at 3 theatres and KON-TIKI (Weinstein) at 2 had $11K averages, while the worthy AT ANY PRICE (Sony Pictures Classics) was much slower with a $4200 average at 4.
About the Author
