The NCAA Tournament may have scored its best ratings in over 20 years, but that doesn’t mean people weren’t heading out to the theater as three films topped the $20 million mark, one was over $30m and at the top was The Croods with $44.7 million. Yes, the weekend is down 35% from the same frame last year, but considering that was the weekend The Hunger Games opened with $152 million I think we can cut the last three days a little slack.
The animated kids feature from Dreamworks and 20th Century Fox will be looking to stick around for a while after receiving an “A” CinemaScore and considering there isn’t another animated family film until Epic on May 24. Croods co-director Chris Sanders previously saw his film How To Train Your Dragon open with similar numbers in March and go on to $217 million domestic and almost $500 million worldwide. Will the cavemen (and women) of The Croods enjoy the same results? The film was made on a budget of $130 million and anything north of $300 million will give the studio good reason to consider a sequel. If you ask me, bet ready for The Croods 2, or whatever ridiculous subtitle they decide to go with, some time in 2015.
In second was Olympus Has Fallen, which rose to the occasion and scored $30.5 million and an impressive “A-” CinemaScore considering its violent, hard-R nature. On a budget of $70 million this is exactly the kind of result this film needed, but I wonder how it will play overseas. Will international audiences relish in the destruction of the White House or will they simply not care for all the ultimate flag-waving that takes place?
The last of the new, wide release films is the Tina Fey and Paul Rudd dramedy Admission, which opened to a soft $6.4 million and a “B-” CinemaScore, which means we won’t be hearing much from it down the line. The budget was only $13 million, so it’s not a huge loser, but based on the trailers I saw (I never did end up seeing the film) it never did look like much of a winner.
Looking over the reader predictions…
It would be hard for anyone to beat coltonhaynes22‘s prediction on The Croods considering he was spot on at $44.7 million and no one could touch Colton on Admission either where his $6.3 million prediction was the closest on the board and almost perfect as well.
When it comes to Olympus Has Fallen, Athar owns bragging rights for his $31.5 million prediction. It seems most expected this film to land somewhere in the mid-20s and many of you were even in the high teens. Tracking had it at $22 million so to say it over-performed is a bit of an understatement, but how will it hold up in the face of G.I. Joe: Retaliation next weekend?
Elsewhere in the top ten, Oz the Great and Powerful is still holding strong raising its worldwide total to $356.4 million. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is already on its way to disappearing, dropping 58% from last weekend, while the Halle Berry-led thriller The Call only dipped 47% from its strong opening weekend.
Expanding after its limited opening last weekend was Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers, which was ushered into 1,104 theaters and brought in $5 million for a $4,529 per theater average. The film only cost $2 million so it’s all gravy from here on out.
Meanwhile, the Weinstein Co. released the Aussie import The Sapphires into only four theaters and managed $10,232 per.
Oh, and for those wondering, InAPPropriate Comedy opened in 292 theaters to the tune of $155,000 for a $531 per theater average. Nice!
Next weekend sees the release of G.I. Joe: Retaliation beginning Thursday night followed by The Host and Tyler Perry’s Temptation in wide release and the limited release of The Place Beyond the Pines.
The conversation is open to this weekend’s results and anyone who dares make early predictions for next week? How do you think G.I. Joe will perform? How about The Host? Just how many of Stephenie Meyer’s fans are only loyal to Twilight?
