All eyes (and knives) were out for how After Earth would perform this weekend and it pretty much hit the mark expected with a third place spot and $27 million on a weekend where nearly everyone fell. The film, which removed the general charm that draws in most Will Smith fans, had a $130 million budget and largely negative reactions from critics (We’d give it a C- based on first thoughts) but it’s not opened overseas yet where it can appeal to different sensibilities. It is on track to do about the same as John Carter and Battleship though, so it’ll be in the bad territory but perceptions will be that it will do worse than it actually does.
Fast & Furious 6 had the biggest drop here, more so than expected, with it being down 65% compared to its opening weekend, which doesn’t give it a long shelf life with a whole lot of competition coming up. Universal isn’t going to complain much though since they’ve moved faster into better territory than usual this year as a studio in general.
The surprise of the weekend for many was Now You See Me, which came in second at $28 million on a $75 million budget. Magic based films tend to not do well (i.e. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. The Prestige) but this one had some smart casting choices, solid marketing working off of Morgan Freeman and I think it also had a draw with Mark Ruffalo that should not be discounted after his popularity in The Avengers. It may not have a long shelf life either, but expectations were a lot lower based on trends so it’ll likely break even and do decent when all is said and done.
RANK | TITLE | DISTRIBUTOR NAME | WEEKEND REVENUE | CUME REVENUE | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
REVENUE | # OF LOCATIONS* | LOC AVG | ||||
1 | Fast & Furious 6 | Universal | $34,537,820 | 3,686 | 9,370 | $170,377,345 |
2 | Now You See Me | Lionsgate | $28,050,000 | 2,925 | 9,589 | $28,050,000 |
3 | After Earth | Sony | $27,000,000 | 3,401 | 7,938 | $27,000,000 |
4 | Star Trek Into Darkness | Paramount | $16,400,000 | 3,585 | 4,574 | $181,156,486 |
4 | Epic | 20th Century Fox | $16,400,000 | 3,894 | 4,211 | $65,161,181 |
6 | Hangover 3, The | Warner Bros. | $15,930,000 | 3,565 | 4,468 | $88,085,654 |
7 | Iron Man 3 | Disney | $8,006,000 | 2,895 | 2,765 | $384,751,000 |
8 | Great Gatsby, The | Warner Bros. | $6,265,000 | 2,635 | 2,377 | $128,255,892 |
9 | Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani | Eros Entertainment | $1,650,550 | 162 | 10,188 | $1,650,550 |
10 | Mud | Roadside Attractions | $1,225,500 | 580 | 2,112 | $16,865,596 |
11 | Croods, The | 20th Century Fox | $615,000 | 506 | 1,215 | $180,538,061 |
12 | Frances Ha | IFC Films | $552,182 | 133 | 4,151 | $1,578,314 |