By Chris Kavan - 02/03/13 at 11:20 PM CT
While a power outage made its mark on the Super Bowl - it turns out when 100 million plus people tune into the biggest game of the year, the box office tends to suffer. In fact, Super Bowl Weekend is considered one of the slowest movie weekends. This year is no exception, but compared to last year it was a 27% drop. With those kind of numbers, there are still a few bright spots to a rather tepid weekend.
1) WARM BODIES
The zom-rom-com with Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer took in $19.5 million for the weekend and factoring in an extra day, it wound up with a $20 million total. While it couldn't quite reach the same totals that Chronicle ($22 million) and The Woman in Black ($20.9 million), considering the nature of the film, that start still has to be seen as pretty good. It was buoyed by a largely female (60%) and younger (65% under 25) audience - a good counter-programming to the testosterone-infused Super Bowl. They also awarded it a B+ (A for the under 18 crowd) meaning it could have a decent hold.
2) HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS
The action fantasy film took a 53.2% hit and dropped to second with $9.2 million, bringing its total up to $34.4 million. While the film still will be hard-pressed to reach its $50 million budget (not to mention marketing costs) at least it can find comfort in that it will soon be able to top the total for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter ($37.5 million).
3) THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Silver Linings continued to be, well, a silver lining at the box office as it had another great weekend, dropping just over 14% to take in $8.1 million and jumped from the fourth to the third spot. The film topped the $75 million mark and ended up at $80.3 million. It's road to $100 million should end right around the time the Academy Awards hit on the 24th.
4) MAMA
The horror hit took a 48.6% hit, but with another $6.7 million in the bank, it rose to $58.2 million and now stands as the highest-grossing horror film since 2011's Paranormal Activity 3 ($104 million). While it doesn't look like it's going to be able to top that film, a total around $75 million isn't out of the question.
5) ZERO DARK THIRTY
The hunt for bin Laden drama took a 45.4% hit and dropped from third to fifth place with $5.3 million. The film's total now stands at $77.7 million and it's looking unlikely that it will be able to top $100 million - it should stall out right around $90 million.
Outside the top five - it was another bad weekend for action as Sylvester Stallone suffered an even worse fate than fellow action alum Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bullet to the Head opened in sixth place with just $4.5 million compared to $6.3 million for The Last Stand (which was considered pretty much a bomb quality opening). In fact, other than the 1981 film Nighthawks it is the worst opening for Stallone and is also the worst opening for any film in 2013 opening in 2,000 plus theaters. It seems there is an Expendables curse going on - as Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Statham (with the failure of Parker) have all had a terrible time at the box office.
Way, way down outside the top 10, Stand Up Guys opened in 659 theaters way down in 17th place with $1.5 million. Even if it decides to expand - don't expect it to make much noise. It should quietly leave theaters to prepare for a quick turn to the home market.
In better news, Django Unchained passed the $150 million mark, taking in just over $3 million to wind up at $150.9 million, beating fellow Oscar nominee Les Miserables ($141.5 million) to the punch.
Next week the Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy comedy Identity Thief looks to lighten up the box office while the deadly serious Steven Soderbergh film Side Effects (with Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum and Jude Law) tries to make an early case for the 2014 Oscars. Hopefully one will bring audiences back to the box office.
