The weekend box office estimates are in and The Wolverine is #1 as was expected, but we aren’t talking about any measure of domination here. Opening at just $55 million the result is $30 million less than 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine and pretty much exactly the same number as 2011’s X-Men: First Class, but with inflated 3-D ticket prices we’re still seeing a downward trend.
There is a silver lining, however, as opening weekend audiences gave the film an “A-” CinemaScore so the legs on this one could be long and Fox has to look at this as a solid response that could help next year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past put the franchise on an upward trend.
In its second weekend in release, James Wan‘s highly successful The Conjuring fell only 47% and added another $22.1 million to its total, bringing its cume up to $83 million. On a budget of only $20 million it will be interesting to see how many sequels this new franchise spawns as this one is looking to bring home at least $125 million domestically if not more.
In its second weekend Turbo dropped only 37.5% for $13.3 million, but its small opening and the fact Despicable Me 2 is still dominating means this one will never rise too high at the domestic box.
I think it’s important to mention that Adam Sandler‘s Grown Ups 2 just became his 14th domestic release to top $100 million in its third week in release so expect more where that came from and don’t blame me, you supported it… or at least some of you. Yeah, you know who you are.
The excellent Fruitvale Station expanded into 1,064 theaters this weekend and managed $4.6 million for a $4,377 average and while that isn’t all that great, hopefully word of mouth will begin to build and keep this one alive for a little while. After all, it’s a fantastic film.
Finally, in limited release Woody Allen‘s Blue Jasmine starring Cate Blanchett opened in only six theaters in New York and Los Angeles and brought in $612,000 for a $102,128 per theater average, which is the best PTA of 2013 and of Allen’s career. Is it possible he may have a bigger hit on his hands with this one than he did with Midnight in Paris? I know this, people are going to want to see Blanchett’s performance because it is sure to be an Oscar nominee if not the winner. You can read my review of the film here.
Next week sees the release of The Smurfs 2 on Wednesday and the Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg actioner 2 Guns as well as limited releases such as The Spectacular Now and Lindsay Lohan‘s The Canyons in New York.
The weekend top ten is directly below followed by the current results in the reader box office prediction challenge, which will become official with actual box office results on Monday afternoon.
