If you get the clumsy baseball references in the title than you get that this weekend was won by 42. The Jackie Robinson biopic earned an estimated $27+ Million, giving the film one of the strongest baseball movie debuts of all time. The film took advantage of perfect timing and well delivered advertising to get out of the gate strong. Despite the impending the parade of competition, the new baseball season should continue to allow the film to stay relevant for a few more weeks than it really should.
Bombing into second place is Scary Movie 5 which managed to pull in $15 Million, and providing tangible proof that no one cares about the spoof franchise any more. If any one is a victor in this instance it would be the Wayne’s Brothers. They conjured up the franchise with the first brilliant film, but eventually parted ways by the third film. The brothers Waynes got back into the horror spoof game earlier this year with A Haunted House, which shines an even larger light on Scary Movie 5‘s failure.
Sticking in third place is the newest hit from Dreamworks, The Croods. Easing a very light 36%, the film brought in another $13 Million giving the film a total haul of nearly $150 million, which is huge for a new animated IP from a studio with a mixed track record. There still remains scant children entertainment competition in the upcoming Box Office calender, so the film should still perform well in the coming weeks.
Last week’s number 1, Evil Dead, had a pretty horrible and standard drop for a Spring horror film. Even still, the film is now over $40 Million domestically and long since past the barrier of success. The same is probably true for Jurassic Park 3D, which now stands at over $30 Million in the states which is a pretty nice sum for a film that is 20 years old and was relativity cheap to bring back to theaters. Still, the fact that the re-release wasn’t another $100 Million smash means we might be coming to at least a break in the 3D release parade.
Next weekend brings the Tom Cruise Sc-Fi actioner Oblivion, which is already making big waves overseas. Expect to see a big opening weekend and a large gulf between the first and second place films next weekend.
