As expected, Elysium topped the box office with $30.5 million, which isn’t exactly the best result, especially if you consider the $42 million tracking. To add insult to injury, the film only received a “B” CinemaScore from audiences, the same as After Earth and less than Red 2.
Laremy reader aggregate was at $39.8 million. The film, overall, should be fine despite a $115 million budget, but it’s going to need some healthy overseas dollars if it wants to make a profit theatrically.
While reviews weren’t particularly kind, the Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston R-rated comedy We’re the Millers had a rather strong $26.6 million weekend and carries at $38 million cume after five days of release. To go along with that, it received an “A-” CinemaScore from opening night audiences. Any chance it pulls a Horrible Bosses repeat and goes for something in the $117 million range domestically?
I am really curious to see how Disney’s Planes shapes up as it opened to a not-so-stellar $22.5 million, but still received an “A-” CinemaScore from opening day audiences. One friend took their two children and, as I suspected would be the case in my review, their youngest couldn’t sit still the entire time, but their oldest enjoyed himself. As I’ve already pointed out, the sequel will be hitting theaters next year and if it manages to improve on this one even the slightest there is no telling if Disneytoons may have a hit franchise on their hands. I bet they’re kicking themselves for not doing this with the Tinker Bell franchise in the first place, as girls are too often an afterthought in Hollywood.
No surprise here, the fourth place finish belongs to Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. After opening on Wednesday with $5.4 million, it could only muster a five day total of $23.4 million with $14.6m of that coming over the three day weekend. By comparison, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief brought in $31.2 million back in 2010 when prospects for the franchise were clearly much higher.
Next weekend sees the release of JOBS, Kick-Ass 2, Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Paranoia, which is to say I don’t see how many of this weekend’s films can hold on all that strong when a crop of four more new releases are coming in right behind them. The most likely titles to hold up are We’re the Millers and Planes as they are the only two that really stand out as “different” among the bunch, but are those “A-” CinemaScores flukes or something to be taken seriously? We’ll find out…
