While Ender’s Game premiering with $28 million isn’t terrible, the fact next weekend brings Thor: The Dark World means it won’t be hanging around for long.
Opening in 3,407 theaters, the film averaged $8,000 per and received a “B+” CinemaScore from opening night audiences. I expect it won’t drop like a rock, but a 50% dip next weekend seems all but inevitable in the face of Thor as the Avengers franchise seems just too strong right now for a moderately received new film to make much of a dent. It will be interesting, however, to see how it performs overseas as that $110 million budget isn’t small.
Coming in second, and showing some real staying power, is Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, which had the smallest drop for any Jackass film, dipping only 36% for an estimated $20.5 million. Conversely, Ridley Scott‘s The Counselor is the biggest dipper this weekend, dropping 59% from last week’s opening frame to $3.2 million and a domestic cume as of now around $8.7 million.
The geriatric bachelor party that is Last Vegas, which only cost $28 million to produce so the $16.5 million it made opening weekend isn’t too bad considering the audience it’s targeting isn’t exactly the “rush out to see something” crowd. The film also scored an “A-” from the opening night crowd so this one could hold on for a couple weeks and make some decent cash.
Just edged out for the #2 slot and not exactly bringing in the big family dollar was the Thanksgiving-themed animated feature Free Birds, which brought in an estimated $16.2 million on a $55 million budget. Overseas prospects for this one have to be slim at best and while it scored an “A-” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, I can’t imagine it’s a film with the same kind of longevity as the more popular family features we see each year. Just not enough of a built-in audience.
Fox Searchlight added 287 theaters to the slight national roll-out of 12 Years a Slave and it brought in a hefty $4.6 million from 410 total locations for an $11,220 per theater average.
Also in our Box Office Challenge this week was the limited opener About Time, which brought in an estimated $1.1 million from 175 theaters, over-performing from what readers and Laremy predicted.
As I said, next weekend brings Thor 2 and that’s about it, unless you count the limited and On Demand release of Kevin MacDonald‘s How I Live Now starring Saoirse Ronan. Anyone care to predict how big Thor will do in its opening domestic frame? It’s expected to open in 3,800 theaters and has already brought in an estimated $109.4 million from 36 overseas markets since opening on Wednesday.
