Saturday matinees, and the families who attend them, were the difference for BIG HERO 6 (Disney) this weekend. Disney’s roly-poly new action star came back from being around $1.2M behind INTERSTELLAR (Par/Warners) on Friday to top the weekend by about $5M, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline. On Saturday, Big Hero 6 jumped by about 50% to $24M, better than the 39% Day 2 bump for The Book of Life, and steady with the Saturday bumps for The Boxtrolls and Alexander and the Terrible…. That should put it at $56M for the weekend, not quite in Frozen territory ($67.4M in its first wide weekend), but well ahead of Tangled‘s $48.8M. With 3 weeks ahead before any animated competition arrives (The Penguins of Madagascar on Thanksgiving weekend), Big Hero 6 should be on its way to well over $200M at the US box office.
Interstellar did quite well too, increasing by 10% on Saturday to $18.7M. By way of comparison, Inception only held its Friday number on Day 2 of its release (although Interstellar will be hard pressed to match Inception‘s remarkable 12% Sunday drop). Interstellar also had a better Saturday bump than recent adult-oriented hits Fury (3%) and The Equalizer (8%)–although it couldn’t match Gone Girl‘s 15% increase. It should reach $50M for the weekend ($52M with its limited Tuesday/Wednesday release in non-digital theatres), and while it’s more directly competitive with the behemoth Hunger Games sequel arriving in 2 weeks, it should also end up over $200M in the US. Interstellar also opened widely around the world this weekend (Big Hero 6 hasn’t begun its overseas release yet), and early numbers are very encouraging, with $17M on Friday alone in 62 markets.
Thinking of GONE GIRL (20th), it was among the trio of movies with $5-6M weekends. Gone Girl declined 40% from last Saturday to $2.8M, and should have a superb 30% drop in its 6th weekend of release, on its way to hitting $150M by next weekend. OUIJA (Universal) continues to hold very well for a horror movie, down 45% from last Saturday to $2.7M, and with a likely 40% weekend drop. FURY (QED/Columbia/Sony) is also holding strong, also down 45% Saturday-to-Saturday to $2.4M, and facing a 38% weekend drop.
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