By Chris Kavan - 03/04/13 at 01:59 AM CT
Chalk up another weak weekend for 2013. Despite having a diverse lineup of new offerings, the box office could only bring in $94.4 million - a 38% decline compared to last year. It has been a rough year so far and no CGI fairy tale, horror sequel or drunken shenanigans could provide the lift needed to turn things around.
1) JACK THE GIANT SLAYER
As predicted, though the CGI-heavy Jack opened in the top slot, it could only manage a weak $28.01 million. That is down from notable bomb John Carter - which opened with $30.1 million last year. The only bright spot for the film is that it did have a major jump in sales from Friday to Saturday - a 56% jump and that audiences awarded it solid B+ cinemascore (an A for those under 18) so it could conceivably hold off well. Considering another CGI fantasy is hitting next weekend (Oz the Great and Powerful) - I'm not holding my breath. It better hope for a strong international push or it won't have any hope in reaching its $200 million budget.
2) IDENTITY THIEF
One of the very few bright spots this year is this R-rated comedy. Dropping 30.8% from last week, the film brought in another $9.7 million and became the only film in 2013 to pass the $100 million mark, topping out at $107.4 million. Director Seth Gordon should have a new top comedy to put on his resume by the time the film finally ends its run.
3) 21 AND OVER
After the relative success of Project X, you would think the party-hard 21 and Over would score a decent opening. Yet its $9 million was less than half of what Project X brought in and has to be seen as a loser in the this specialized genre. The only saving grace is that the film has a modest budget of $13 million, so even with the staggering low opening, it should manage to break even.
4) THE LAST EXORCISM, PART II
Guess what? When you have last as part of your title, it turns out people don't really want a part two. When The Last Exorcism was released, it was a modest hit. Its sequel? Not even close. Opening with just over $8 million - it wasn't anywhere near the $20.4 million the original film took in - and it was even less than last week's disappointing Dark Skies ($8.1 million). What it means is that while horror fans will come out on other months than October - they need to have a compelling, original story (case in point: Mama now standing at $70.8 million) and not yet another rehash of the same old cliches. Expect this to drop just as hard and fast as Dark Skies has.
5) SNITCH
Dwayne Johnson's action film took a 41.5% second week hit taking in $7.7 million and upping its total to $24.4 million. While that total is nothing to be proud of, considering the state of action films this year, that number isn't too bad, either.
Outside the top five: The Oscar's were kind to the chosen few again this year, and the winners managed to receive a nice post-Oscar bump. Silver Linings Playbook got a 3.3% increase and was in 8th place with $5.9 million and raised its total to $115.5 million. Meanwhile Life of Pi saw a 43.3% jump and landed in the 12th spot with $2.3 million and now stands at $116.9 million. Most surprising is that Argo, despite now being readily available for streaming and purchase, still jumped 20.7% and, in 13th place, took in $2.2 million and topped out at $132.7 million.
Next week we should finally see a box office hit as Oz the Great and Powerful hits. Also coming out is Dead Man Down, which has director Niels Arden Oplev once again teaming up with Noomi Rapace (as he did on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). My guess is that Oz is going to be very good for the box office - but will it be enough to finally give 2013 a decent weekend?
Comments
Chris Kavan - wrote on 03/04/13 at 11:47 PM CT
If we're looking at strictly numbers - Jack the Giant Slayer is, by all accounts, a bomb - however, those who watched it seemed to like it well enough. I don't think the film is bad - but it was clear early on that there was no way it was going to be able to match its budget.
