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July 12, 2013
 

THURSDAY NIGHT BOX OFFICE: “Pacific Rim” and “Grown Ups 2” Start Well and Updated Thursday Box Office Chart

 

Given the overwhelming fanboy appeal of PACIFIC RIM (Warners/Legendary), it’s not exactly a shock that the movie started strong with shows that started at 7PM Thursday night, earning $3.6M.  It’s probably in line for a solid Friday as well–the question will be what happens when the usually frontloaded genre crowd is done and the rest of the weekend kicks in.  It’s worth noting that two summer movies aimed at the same audience, The Purge and This Is The End, had night-before screenings that turned out to be at the high end of their total weekends, both at 10% or more.  That could mean a $36M weekend for Pacific Rim in a worst-case scenario, although of course the comparison being pushed by the studio is with World War Z, which was on the low end with a 5.4% night-before result and pushed its $3.6M Thursday to a $66M weekend.

GROWN UPS 2 (Sony), also opened solidly with $2.3M on Thursday (starting 7PM as well), considerably below The Hangover Part III but better than The Heat.  It’s aimed at a mix of Sandler’s male fans and families (dysfunctional families, to be sure).

TITLE THURSDAY NIGHT BOX OFFICE WEEKEND BOX OFFICE THURS AS % OF WEEKEND
IRON MAN 3 15.6M 174.1M  9%
THE GREAT GATSBY 3.3M 50.1M  6.6%
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS 3.3M
(Wed screenings pre-Thurs opening)
70.2M  4.7%
FAST & FURIOUS 6 6.5M 97.4M  6.7%
THE HANGOVER PART III 3.1M 41.7M  7.4%
NOW YOU SEE ME 1.5M 29.4M  5.1%
AFTER EARTH 1M 27.5M  3.6%
THE PURGE 3.4M 34.1M  10%
THE INTERNSHIP 800K 17.3M  4.6%
THIS IS THE END 2.2M
(Tues screenings pre -Wed opening)
20.7  10.6%
MAN OF STEEL 12M
(Wal-mart sponsored screenings)
128.6M  9.3%
WORLD WAR Z 3.6M 66.4M  5.4%
MONSTERS UNIVERSITY 2.6M 82.4M  3.2%
THE HEAT 1M 39.1M  2.5%
WHITE HOUSE DOWN 1.35M 24.9M  5.4%
DESPICABLE ME 2 4.7M
(Tues screenings pre-Wed opening)
83.5M  5.6%
THE LONE RANGER 2M(Tues screenings pre-Wed opening) 29.2M  6.8%
PACIFIC RIM 3.6M ???
GROWN UPS 2 2.3M ???

 

 



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."