Was there any doubt that ‘The Hunger Games’ would follow up its $155 million opening weekend in any spot other than first again? Of course not, but the drop-off was not as friendly as the studio hoped it would be. Lionsgate predicted a 53% drop that would have given the film a $71.7 million second weekend. Actually, it fell 59.9% to only bring in another $61.1 million. After just ten days on the big screen, this $78-million movie has already brought in $251 million. Strong work, Lionsgate!
The $150-million ‘Wrath of the Titans‘ opened just $1 million under studio predictions, but nowhere near the opening of 2010’s ‘Clash of the Titans‘. ‘Clash’ opened with $61.2 million, but ‘Wrath’ only debuted with $34.2 million. Warner Bros. is hoping that ‘Wrath’ will follow the mold of the ‘Sherlock Holmes‘ sequel, which also opened substantially lower than the first, but eventually surpassed the first. Having seen both, I don’t see that as an accurate comparison, but way to stay positive!
Even with its PG rating, the first of this year’s Snow White movies didn’t fare too well. ‘Mirror Mirror‘ was expected to earn $22.3 million over the weekend, but only brought in $19 million. Relativity Media believes that it will have legs over the Easter holiday, but I also believe that Relativity is trying to be hopeful. June’s ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ ought to bury the box office opening of the juvenile ‘Mirror Mirror’.
The Top 5 is rounded out by two surprising figures. Three-week-old ‘21 Jump Street‘ finished in fourth place with a shocking 26.7% drop-off that has left it less than $7 million away from crossing the $100 million mark. ‘The Lorax‘ finished in fifth place with another surprisingly low drop-off. After five weeks in theaters, ‘The Lorax’ dropped 39.3% and is only $10.4 million away from crossing the $200 million mark. I can easily see ‘The Lorax’ performing better next weekend than ‘Mirror Mirror’.
Adding 359 theaters to its limited run (bringing its screen total to 483), ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen‘ broke the Top 10 with $1.2 million to place in the #7 spot. Much like last weekend, the Top 5 grossed such high numbers that it’s funny to see two less-than-$1-million movies make the Top 10 list. Both ‘A Thousand Words‘ and ‘Journey 2‘ grossed under $1 million this weekend.
Of the indie limited openers that I mentioned in my Weekend Movies post on Friday, the only one to land on the weekend’s box office chart is ‘Bully‘. The documentary that Harvey Weinstein publicly fought the MPAA over pulled in an impressive $115,000 on just five screens. I wonder how much it would have made without Weinstein’s ratings hullabaloo?
Top 10:
1. ‘The Hunger Games’ (Lionsgate) – $61,100,000
2. ‘Wrath of the Titans’ (Warner Bros.) – $34,200,000
3. ‘Mirror Mirror’ (Relativity) – $19,000,000
4. ’21 Jump Street’ (Sony) – $15,000,000
5. ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ (Universal) – $8,000,000
6. ‘John Carter’ (Buena Vista) – $2,005,000
7. ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ (CBS) – $1,274,000
8. ‘Act of Valor’ (Relativity) – $1,006,000
9. ‘A Thousand Words’ (Paramount/DreamWorks) – $915,000
10. ‘Journey 2: The Mysterious Island’ (Warner Bros.) – $835,000
