Have Americans (somewhat) come to their senses? Despite following up a $563 million worldwide winner, those little blue bastards got destroyed this weekend!
Although ‘2 Guns‘ took the top spot at the box office, I’m surprised that it didn’t earn more. Director Baltasar Kormakur’s last movie, ‘Contraband‘, also starred Mark Wahlberg and opened to $24.3 million. You’d think that number would increase significantly by adding Denzel Washington to the line-up. In February 2012, Washington’s ‘Safe House‘ opened north of $40 million. However, ‘2 Guns’ barely exceeded ‘Contraband’. On 3,025 screens, the film earned just $27.3 million. Although the movie isn’t bad, it poses the question: Is Denzel on his way out of the action genre?
Even dropping a nasty 59% in attendance, ‘The Wolverine‘ still managed to grasp the #2 spot. Although its debut weekend was about on par with ‘X-Men: First Class‘, the second-week drop-off was a bit worse. If the runs are similar (which I doubt since ‘The Wolverine’ will be booted from 3D screens quickly), it could very well finish its theatrical run around $146 million. At this point, the $120 million-budgeted film has earned $95 million.
‘The Smurfs 2‘ debuted in third place. On 3,866 screens, the $105 million sequel pulled in $18.2 million. The Wednesday head start gave it a five-day total of $27.7 million. While those numbers aren’t terrible (but pretty close), let me give you some perspective: ‘The Smurfs‘ opened to $35.6 million in 2011. After five days, the original ‘Smurfs’ was at $46.2 million. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the ‘Smurfs 2′ debut is the worst of all the kids’ movies crowding this overpopulated summer – even worse than ‘Turbo’. Given that the first movie earned $421 million of its $563 million worldwide haul from international showings, you’d expect the sequel to have killed it overseas – but it didn’t. Instead, Smurfs were defeated by ‘Pacific Rim’ (in China, at least). All-in-all, ‘The Smurfs 2’ has earned $52.5 million from international markets.
The #4 spot went to ‘The Conjuring‘. In its third weekend, the $20 million R-rated horror flick crossed the $100 million mark with a 38% drop-off and another $13.6 million. Also still going strong was fifth place ‘Despicable Me 2‘. The five-weekend-old sequel continues to play strong despite two other 3D kids’ movies that opened after it. The movie’s $10.3 million weekend has pushed it past $326 million domestically and $387 million internationally, for a total of $713.6 million?
After major critical acclaim from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, ‘The Spectacular Now‘ had great turnout in its debut weekend. Playing on four screens in L.A. and New York, it earned an impressive $200,000. Distributor A24 will follow the expansion model for Fox Searchlight’s ‘The Way, Way Back’ and will slowly expand the release over the next few weeks.
Lindsay Lohan’s ‘The Canyons‘ warranted a great single-screen opening, but a reportedly even better VOD release. Theatrically, it earned $15,200 from that lone screen. The VOD numbers haven’t been announced, but are said to be strong.
Numbers have yet to be released for ‘Europa Report‘.
Top 10:
1. ‘2 Guns’ (Universal) – $27,361,000
2. ‘The Wolverine’ (Fox) – $21,725,000
3. ‘The Smurfs 2’ (Sony) – $18,200,000
4. ‘The Conjuring’ (Warner Bros.) – $13,660,000
5. ‘Despicable Me 2’ (Universal) – $10,391,000
6. ‘Grown Ups 2’ (Sony) – $8,100,000
7. ‘Turbo’ (Fox) – $6,400,000
8. ‘RED 2’ (Summit) – $5,650,000
9. ‘The Heat’ (Fox) – $4,725,000
10. ‘Pacific Rim’ (Warner Bros.) – $4,570,000
