Down nearly 20% from what the weekend did this time last year when The Dark Knight Rises was released and account for $160 million all by itself, the big winner this weekend was again Warner Bros. as their new film The Conjuring scared up $41.5 million on its $20 million budget. The advertising for the film has been spot on and the trailers in theaters have certainly freaked out audiences, which definitely draws more of them in. With strong word of mouth and no competition for awhile ahead, it’s definitely going to be one of the better performing versus budget films of the summer.
The same can’t be said about the other three new arrivals this week. Turbo opens too close to two other big family movies and it’ll likely get crushed in a couple of weeks when Smurfs 2 and then Planes debuts (though we’re expecting Planes to do poorly overall). Red 2, which opened a few months earlier than its predecessor did, isn’t opening as strong as that film and likely isn’t going to have the same kind of legs to it, which is unfortunate since it is a fun romp and just smile inducing throughout with the nature of the cast.
The big bomb of the weekend is RIPD though, which made just $12 million on its $130 million budget and was pushed hard for the 3D release, at least in our area. 2D shows were about half the available number of the 3D shows and almost no matinees, which is all anecdotal but it made it a less than accessible experience. With its comic book origins and too close to Men in Black feel, the film just didn’t click and it’ll disappear very quickly. Similar to Red 2, we caught it this weekend and I rather enjoyed it, though I wouldn’t grade it higher than a B-, as the film moves at a good pace, doesn’t dawdle or get overly emotional or deep with its characters and just has fun. And with it all filming near me in Boston, it was fun to see so many familiar locales get trashed.
Next weekend has a couple of new things hitting with most eyes on The Wolverine, which is getting some early positive reviews, as well as comedy The To-Do List, both of which we’re looking forward to.
| RANK | TITLE | DISTRIBUTOR NAME | WEEKEND REVENUE | CUME REVENUE | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REVENUE | # OF LOCATIONS* | LOC AVG | ||||
| 1 | Conjuring, The | Warner Bros. | $41,530,000 | 2,903 | 14,305 | $41,530,000 |
| 2 | Despicable Me 2 | Universal | $25,059,200 | 3,820 | 6,560 | $276,159,235 |
| 3 | Turbo | 20th Century Fox | $21,500,000 | 3,806 | 5,648 | $31,202,759 |
| 4 | Grown Ups 2 | Sony | $20,000,000 | 3,491 | 5,729 | $79,515,876 |
| 5 | Red 2 | Lionsgate | $18,500,000 | 3,016 | 6,133 | $18,500,000 |
| 6 | Pacific Rim | Warner Bros. | $15,955,000 | 3,285 | 4,856 | $68,235,292 |
| 7 | R.I.P.D. | Universal | $12,762,700 | 2,852 | 4,475 | $12,762,700 |
| 8 | Heat, The | 20th Century Fox | $9,325,000 | 2,689 | 3,467 | $129,292,436 |
| 9 | World War Z | Paramount | $5,200,000 | 2,066 | 2,516 | $186,941,067 |
| 10 | Monsters University | Disney | $5,005,000 | 2,186 | 2,289 | $248,998,000 |
| 11 | Lone Ranger, The | Disney | $4,260,000 | 2,273 | 1,874 | $81,171,000 |
| 12 | White House Down | Sony | $2,400,000 | 1,454 | 1,650 | $68,452,629 |
I dislike it when the theatre tries to force 3d showings on me. I don’t want to pay the extra fee, I don’t want to wear their glasses and I’m not too impressed with 3d in general. Not to mention that paying for a 3d movie is, for me, paying for the privilege of getting a killer headache.
On principle I don’t care for 3d movies as their 2d versions look “blurry” in my experience and they drive moviemakers to go towards using more cheesy CG, which I dislike, They also focus on making the 3d spectacle the big draw of the movie, which would explain why, when seen without that (ie:2d) some 3d movies fail spectacularly.
Pacific Rim, I’m glaring at you. Del Toro owes me $10.50+ for that steaming pile..