BOX OFFICE REPORT "” March 22-24, 2013(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)
TOP 5
1. The Croods ($44.7 million)2. Olympus Has Fallen ($30.5 million)3. Oz the Great and Powerful ($22 million)4. The Call ($8.7 million)5. Admission ($6.4 million)
DreamWorks rebounded after a particularly cold winter reception for Rise of the Guardians. Their prehistoric comedy The Croods dominated the box office this weekend with an estimated $44.7 million. Animated flicks always do well in the spring, though The Croods didn't have nearly the debut 2012's The Lorax did. While the Neanderthal family still has a ways to go to justify a sequel, another adventure will likely be announced any day now, especially since the film made even more overseas.
The Die Hard knockoff Olympus Has Fallen actually opened better than the last Die Hard movie (as long as your only counting its Friday to Sunday gross). Still, it's close either way and, depending on your viewpoint, is either great for this film or bad for Die Hard. It's likely to match that film's $66 million so far by the time it's all said and done, but expect a big drop next week. Unless there's a superhero involved, action movies rarely stick around.
Finally, the Tina Fey-Paul Rudd rom-com Admission only made $6.4 million. That's only a million and a half more than Spring Breakers did in its expansion, but that film did it on half the screens. Admission won't be a total failure, since it only cost $13 million, but it will be out of theaters very quickly. Compare that to Spring Breakers, which is likely a flash in the pan rather than a legitimate breakout hit. This weekend it added 1100 screens and brought in nearly $5 million, which is more money than all of Harmony Korine's previous directorial efforts combined. It's unlikely to have staying power once we move into April, but it's a definite conversation starter for the time being.
Outside the top 5:- The sketch comedy inAPPropriate Comedy (yes, it's spelled that obnoxiously) averaged only $625 per its 275 screens. Any average less than $1,000 is pretty putrid. Director Vince Offer should stick to what he knows: selling ShamWows. - Australia's musical sensation The Sapphires, which recently swept that country's version of the Oscars, averaged a healthy $10,225 on its four screens. If word-of-mouth is strong, this could be yet another hit for Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids). - The arthouse champ this week was the graffiti artist dramedy Gimme the Loot, which made $23,400 on its lone screen.
Next week: The box office gets heated as the long-delayed G.I. Joe sequel Retaliation opens Thursday, followed by Stephenie Meyer's non-Twilight adaptation The Host. That one's written and directed by the great Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, The Truman Show), so it might actually be watchable compared to the Twilight series. Those two face off against the 800th Tyler Perry movie Temptation. I think Joe ekes out the win with $35 million, with $22 million for The Host and $18 for Temptation.
