Weekend Box Office: Pain and Gain Narrowly Tops Oblivion

By Chris Kavan - 04/29/13 at 12:05 AM CT

In another slow weekend, a violent comedy managed to snag the top spot away from Tom Cruise's latest film. But the biggest story isn't about what's playing in the states but rather what's making waves world-wide. Iron Man 3 made some massive waves by opening even bigger than The Avengers, which means that next week we should see some big fireworks. This week is another matter as the weekend was pretty much in line with the rest of the year - good but nothing to crow about.

1) PAIN & GAIN

Michael Bay's latest opened to a $20 million opening, good enough for the top spot. While that was enough to to Dwayne Johnson's Snitch ($13.2 million) it wasn't quite as good as the opening for Mark Wahlberg's Contraband ($24.3 million). It also doesn't look as impressive for Bay himself, though the reported $26 million budget is much smaller than most of his louder pictures. Still the audience didn't think much of this based-on-a-true story crime/comedy/violent hybrid, giving it a decidedly low C+ average. It will probably make back its budget but with big competition on the horizon, I don't see it doing much more than that.

2) OBLIVION

Last week's top film slipped a spot. With another $17.3 million in the bank, Oblivion rose to $64.7 million after two weeks. It took a pretty big 53% hit and it's bound to have another big drop against Iron Man 3. It might make it to $75 million, but at this time it's looking pretty slim that it will be able to breach the $100 million mark.

3) 42

The uplifting Jackie Robinson biopic also dropped down a spot, though its 40% hold was better than Oblivion. It added $10.7 million to its total and after three weeks it now stands at just over $69 million and it should easily top the $75 million mark by next week.

4) THE BIG WEDDING

The week's other new wide release film wasn't big in any way - unless you count being a big failure. With just $7.5 million it was one of the worst wedding movies on record - under the totals from the likes of License to Wed ($10.4 million) and You Again ($8.4 million). The all-star cast just couldn't elevate such a stale premise and lame material. Audience felt the same way, awarding it a C+, which means that it might have one more week before falling off the radar entirely - probably with less than half its $35 million budget.

5) THE CROODS

The animated film had the best hold of any film in the top 10, dropping just 28.5% in its sixth weekend. Taking in $6.6 million the family-friendly caveman story now stands at over $163 million and, for the moment, it ranks as the second-highest grossing film of 2013 behind Oz the Great and Powerful ($226.1 million). Even though it continues to fall, I think it has enough juice left to hit that magic $200 million mark - it still has a few good weeks left before Epic hits on May 24.

Outside the top five: Roadside Attractions had good news as indie darling Mud opened to $2.18 million (11th place), which is the second-best opening for the studio behind The Conspirator ($3.5 million). Critical response has been off the chart and with Matthew McConaughey continuing to draw in a decent audience, there's a good chance it will top the $10 million mark.

Joining the $50 million club for the year, Evil Dead took in $2 million (12th place) and eased over the mark with a $51.8 million total. Also joining that same club was Tyler Perry's Temptation, which took in $1.1 million (15th place) and topped out at $50.6 million.

But it is Iron Man 3 that got the most attention. With a $195.3 million global tally, it topped The Avengers ($185 million) to become the 9th-best overseas debut. Amongst Marvel films only Spider-Man 3 ($230.5 million) had a better opening. Disney is also reporting record opening numbers in Asia and Latin America markets. What does this mean? With some people calling for an opening in the $150 million range - it should be the first film to cross the $1 billion mark though, even with such good numbers, matching The Avengers will be tough. But if anyone can challenge it, it will be Tony Stark.

That's all - next week, well see the above paragraph. No other wide-release film is going to dare challenge the might of Iron Man - probably a good idea. We'll just see how big the film will open next weekend.

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