Weekend Box Office: ‘Pain’ Gains an Audience

Michael Bay’s weekend win would typically be big news, but this one is overshadowed by the international debut of ‘Iron Man 3’. The third movie in Marvel’s franchise (fourth if you count ‘The Avengers‘) opened in 42 markets one week prior to its U.S. release and earned $195.3 million, which is $10 million more than the international opening for ‘Avengers’. Michael Bay may have won the domestic battle this weekend, but next week ‘Iron Man’ will bring the pain.

Pain & Gain‘ flexed its muscles with a decent $20 million opening. While that number is nearly $2 million below expectations, considering that the film was produced for a modest $26 million budget, the debut isn’t half bad. But it almost didn’t come in at first place. Week-old ‘Oblivion‘ finished just $2 million behind the body-building crime comedy.

The three-week-old Jackie Robinson drama ‘42‘ placed third with $10.7 million. That was more than enough to hold off ‘The Big Wedding‘. Not even the large cast consisting of Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace and Robin Williams could save this turd from sinking. On 2,633 screens, the R-rated marriage- and wedding-themed comedy only pulled in $7.5 million, a new low for almost every player involved.

The surprise of the weekend was the quiet 363-screen limited release of ‘Mud‘. Jeff Nichols’ follow-up after ‘Take Shelter‘ pulled in a fantastic $2.1 million, earning a per-screen average of $6,022. I went to a late Friday night showing and learned that it was sold out, so the theater opened a second screen. This is impressive for an indie release anywhere, but especially so here in Utah.

The other noteworthy indie release wasn’t nearly as impressive. Starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt, the 248-screen opening of ‘Arthur Newman‘ did almost nothing. The $108,000 debut only warranted a per-screen average of $435.

Top 10:

1. ‘Pain & Gain’ (Paramount) – $20,000,000

2. ‘Oblivion’ (Universal) – $17,443,000

3. ’42’ (Warner Bros.) – $10,725,000

4. ‘The Big Wedding’ (Lionsgate) – $7,500,000

5. ‘The Croods’ (Fox) – $6,600,000

6. ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ (Paramount) – $3,620,000

7. ‘Scary Movie 5’ (Weinstein) – $3,457,000

8. ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ (FilmDistrict) – $2,768,000

9. ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ (Focus) – $2,699,000

10. ‘Jurassic Park 3D’ (Universal) – $2,310,000

2 comments

  1. Caleb F. Powell

    I think you meant to write 42 in the top 10 section… 🙂 unless you put 43 because it was in 3rd place lol

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