It’s another ugly weekend at the box office, this time topped by the $140 million budgeted Exodus: Gods and Kings. Ridley Scott‘s Biblical epic finished with a whopping $24.5 million (44% from 3D showings) against a “B-” CinemaScore, which pretty much says this one is dead in the water, at least domestically. By comparison, Fox’s Son of God opened at $25.6 million earlier this year from 300 fewer theaters and went on to make only $59.7 million. This result is also well below Darren Aronofsky‘s Noah, which also opened earlier this year and also came under scrutiny from the faith-based sector of the audience. Noah, however, managed to open with $43.7 million, finishing its run with $101.2 million. The $261.4 million it made overseas, however, may bode well for Exodus.
Perhaps international dollars can save Exodus, but at this point who really cares? It’s not worth saving. It has been rather ugly at the box office as of late with only limited and smaller film releases generating any kind of conversation worth buzzing about… though I guess that means good news for those of us concerned with quality cinema.
One film I’d recommend is Chris Rock‘s Top Five, which Paramount ushered into only 979 theaters to the tune of $7.2 million. I’m not entirely sure why they didn’t go nationwide with this movie given the good reviews and list of cameo appearances, but hopefully Paramount can find an even larger audience for what is a pretty good film.
Opening in limited release this weekend was Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Inherent Vice, which took in $330,000 from five theaters for a $66,000 per theater average. What’s most amazing about that number is the fact Vice pulled in $128,000 on Friday alone, not sure that bodes well for expansion.
The small release that’s going to generate the most chatter this weekend is Reese Witherspoon‘s Wild, which cracked the top ten despite playing in only 116 theaters where it brought in $1.5 million.
Next week sees the release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies on Wednesday, which may actually help bolster the lackluster returns we’ve seen as of late. Then, on Friday comes Annie and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. I’m not sure if either of those will help turn these stale weekend numbers around, but we’ll see.
