Weekend Box Office: Evil Reboot Knocks 'Em Dead - Jurassic Park Looks Good in 3D

By Chris Kavan - 04/07/13 at 11:55 PM CT

Everything old is new again - and it that's good news for Hollywood. It appears audiences are still happy too - as the overall box office was up 9% compared to same weekend last year - a good sign for a rather rough year - and it was thanks to two well-received new entries and some impressive holdovers as well. I admit - things turned out much better than I had expected. Hollywood is certainly on a roll, let's hope they can keep the ball rolling from here on out.

1) EVIL DEAD

Fede Alvarez had a tall order - to take a beloved cult horror film and put not just a new spin on it - but a new spin that audiences would like. Alvarez didn't have to worry too much, as Evil Dead took the top spot with $26 million over the weekend. That's good enough for 10th all time in horror remakes - smack dab between Halloween ($26.4 million) and The Amityville Horror ($23.5 million). While it wasn't quite enough to knock to Mama's opening ($28.4 million) - it can still be seen as a win - easily topping Texas Chainsaw 3D's $21.7 million opening. Audiences only gave it a lukewarm C+ Cinemascore (on par with most other horror films) and it should ultimately break the $50 million mark.

2-3) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, THE CROODS

It was a virtual tie between holdovers Joe and The Croods, with both taking in $21.1 million. Joe dropped about 48% in its second weekend - better than the 57% that Clash of Titans fell after Easter 2010. Since opening, the film has taken in $86.66 million - lagging about $15 million behind the original film in the same time period.

Meanwhile, The Croods has just a 21% decline in its third weekend to wind up with $125.8 million. The animated caveman flick has proven it has good legs and with little in the way of direct competition through May, that $200 million mark is looking like it's in the bag.

4) JURASSIC PARK 3D

Audiences were certainly happy to be welcomed back to Jurassic Park. The re-release took in an excellent $18.2 million. That total places it between Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace ($22.5 million) and Titanic ($17.3 million) in terms of opening numbers. The movie even set a record: IMAX showings accounted for $6 million (or 32%) of the opening - the largest share ever for a nationwide release. Consider the overall backlash against 3D, this has to be seen as an encouraging sign that the medium still has a viable audience - at least when the film is actually anticipated.

5) OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN

With just a 29% decline over last weekend, Olympus held up much better following its 53% drop last week. Even though G.I. Joe continued to offer strong competition, the white house action thriller took in $10.04 million and wound up with $71.1 million total - just topping its $70 million budget. It should break $75 million with no problem - though a $100 million total is probably going to be just out of its reach. Considering the sorry state of early action films, however, this has to be seen as a major accomplishment.

Outside the top five:

While The Host can't be seen as anything other than a disappointment - the $5.2 million it brought in bumped it up to $19.66 million and at least it has topped Beautiful Creatures (which only took in $19.4 million in its entire run) - a very small consolation for sure, but a consolation none-the-less.

In limited release, The Place Beyond the Pines expanded from 4 to 30 theaters and still had a very impressive $23,167-per-theater average - taking in $695,000 (good enough for 13th place). We'll see if it can keep up with these impressive numbers as it expands nationwide by the 19th.

Next weekend we have the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, Scary Movie 5 (which takes a page from Black Swan for some reason) and the first look at Terrence Malick's latest To the Wonder - sure to divide audience much like Tree of Life.

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