Weekend Box Office: No Twist for Shyamalan

This weekend, M. Night Shyamalan and the Smith family fell far short of expectations while an ensemble heist thriller pulled off a magic coup.

Despite dropping 64% in attendance, ‘Fast & Furious 6‘ dominated the box office for the second weekend in a row. On 3,686 screens, the crowd-pleasing motorhead flick pulled in another $34.5 million, bringing its 10-day domestic total up to $170.3 million. All in all, this, the most absurd movie of the franchise, has earned $480.6 million worldwide.

The battle for second place was close, but ‘Now You See Me‘ narrowly upset ‘After Earth’ by $1 million. On 2,925 screens, the $75 million magic-based heist flick was only expected to open to $20 million – but counter-programming gave it a much more lucrative life. The film closed out its opening weekend with $28 million.

Criticized for being subliminal Scientology propaganda, M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘After Earth‘ failed to make any noise. On 3,401 screens, the $130 million Will/Jaden Smith science fiction-ish vehicle was expected to open between $35 and $40 million, but failed miserably by only opening to $27 million. Analysts predict a path similar to April’s ‘Oblivion’, but there’s no way that can be true. ‘After Earth’ is plagued by terrible word-of-mouth.

Weekend estimates show that the #4 spot was shared by ‘Star Trek into Darkness‘ and ‘Epic‘, both of which earned $16.4 million. When the final numbers are announced later today, we’ll learn which title is the true fourth placer. Domestic earnings for ‘Star Trek’ are now at $181.1 million, but it’s still performing very well overseas. ‘Into Darkness’ opened strongly to $25 million in China this weekend. Worldwide, ‘Trek’ is now up to $328.6 million. While ‘Epic’ isn’t a failure, it’s not doing great either. Its ten-day domestic total is $65.1 million, but its worldwide total is $151.5 million. Being a $100 million movie, it still has some distance to make up between now and ‘Monsters University’.

Of the two bigger limited releases that I mentioned in Friday’s Weekend Movies post, only one has had its weekend estimates announced so far. We’ll have to wait until later today to find out how ‘Shadow Dancer‘ performed. However, ‘The East‘ did very well. On just four screens, the activist thriller earned $75,600. The $18,900 per-screen average doubled that of any film in the Top 10.

Top 10

1. ‘Fast & Furious 6’ (Universal) – $34,538,000

2. ‘Now You See Me’ (Summit) – $28,050,000

3. ‘After Earth’ (Sony) – $27,000,000

4. ‘Star Trek into Darkness’ (Paramount) – $16,400,000

4. ‘Epic’ (Fox) – $16,400,000

6. ‘The Hangover Part III’ (Warner Bros.) – $15,930,000

7. ‘Iron Man 3’ (Buena Vista) – $8,006,000

8. ‘The Great Gatsby’ (Warner Bros.) – $6,265,000

9. ‘Mud’ (Roadside) – $1,226,000

10. ‘The Croods’ (Fox) – $615,000

5 comments

  1. William Henley

    I actually found it very interesting that many of my local theaters were playing “Now You See Me” on their giant screens rather than “After Earth”. That is what I saw, and I saw it on a CineCapri.

    • William Henley

      Actually, just did a search. Local theaters, between the Xtreams, Imaxes, CineCapri, and XDs seem split between “Now You See Me”, “Star Trek”, “Fast and Furious” and “After Earth” on their big screens. That is odd – usually all the theaters are showing the same movie on their giant screens.

  2. NJScorpio

    I was on the fence about ‘Now You See Me’, but hearing that the pace is similar to ‘Premium Rush’, I look forward to seeing it. Probably through a Redbox rental.

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