Sam Raimi sure knows how to make a successful crowd pleaser, his prequel to the most famous movie ever came out with the first blockbuster opening weekend of 2013. Raking in over $80 Million in its debut frame, Oz: The Great and Powerful is well on the way to becoming the first mega hit of the year.
The film didn’t quite reach Alice in Wonderland numbers, but considering the advantages that film had, and the disadvantages Oz faced, the $80 Million haul is a massive win. Expect to see a sequel get rolling very soon as Disney will try to avoid the pitfalls of franchising Alice and put the pedal to the metal on their shiny new franchise-to-be.
Coming in second place on the weekend was last weeks bomb, Jack the Giant Slayer. Jack continues to defy odds by doing even worse than John Carter at just about every turn. Dropping over 63% from an already weak opening debut and bringing in barely over $10 Million Jack is going to struggle to make $60 Million at the end of its run. Good thing Bryan Singer has X-Men: Days of Future Past to fall back on, because normally a flop like this is death to a big budget director.
The inexplicable hit Identity Thief continued its strong run by bringing in $6.3 Million and pushing the films total gross to close to $120 Million. The R-Rated comedy is a huge hit for all involved, which is great for Jason Bateman, but not so great for fans of quality comedy cinema.
Next weekend brings a trio of new films to try to steal Oz‘s shiny new crown. Although it is not overly likely that The Call, Spring Breakers, or The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is up to the task. Still two of those three new movies should occupy the rest of the top three next weekend, although that is not exactly a bold prediction considering how poorly all non-Oz related films did in the box office this weekend.
