Super Bowl weekend doesn’t usually result in big box office earnings, but this year proved otherwise. The top five movies pulled in an estimated $95.9 million, up 31% from the same period last year. Even more surprising is the movie that took the #1 spot.
‘Chronicle‘, the $12 million found-footage flick about three teens who obtain super powers, barely earned enough to hold off Daniel Radcliffe’s ‘The Woman in Black‘. Expected to finish around $17.5 million, ‘Chronicle’ closed the weekend with $22 million. Although it wasn’t strong enough to warrant an upset, ‘The Woman in Black’ earned more than $10 million above expectations, closing out the weekend just $1 million behind ‘Chronicle’ with $21 million.
‘The Grey‘ dropped 51% in attendance, but its $9.5 million second weekend was enough to hold off the opening of ‘Big Miracle‘. The based-on-a-true-story tale of the rescue of three gray whales trapped in the winter ice of northern Alaska ended up pulling in $8.5 million. It’s suspected that ‘Big Miracle’ will not follow in the highly successful wake of the similar animal-driven family film ‘Dolphin Tale’. ‘Miracle’ doesn’t feature a child-centric cast, and ‘Dolphin’ had the added bonus of inflated 3D ticket prices.
Rounding out the Top 5 was ‘Underworld Awakening‘. The fourth film in its franchise, ‘Awakening’ is only $8 million away from becoming the highest-grossing ‘Underworld’ movie to date.
Despite a pathetic 16% Rotten Tomatoes score, Madonna’s ‘W.E.‘ opened (for the second time) with a staggering $45,000 on only four screens. That gives it the second best per-screen average of the weekend. Do you think the hype around her Super Bowl half-time performance had anything to do with that?
Top 10:
1. ‘Chronicle’ (Fox) – $22,000,000
2. ‘The Woman in Black’ (CBS) – $21,000,000
3. ‘The Grey’ (ORF) – $9,500,000
4. ‘Big Miracle’ (Universal) – $8,500,000
5. ‘Underworld Awaking’ (Screen Gems) – $5,600,000
6. ‘One for the Money’ (Lionsgate) – $5,250,000
7. ‘Red Tails’ (Fox) – $5,000,000
8. ‘The Descendants’ (Fox Searchlight) – $4,600,000
9. ‘Man on the Ledge’ (Summit) – $4,500,000
10. ‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,925,000
JM
Nine girls of various shapes, colors, and ages went to see ‘One For The Money’ this weekend, and all of them gave it a cinemascore of A-.
The lone husband, Tall Matt, gave it a B.
Philosophically, I’ve been wishing I could return to being nineteen again. To watch today’s films, without the baggage of film criticism.
With respect to B.O., is Daniel Radcliffe is the new Robert Pattinson?
EM
I had no idea that their movies were being released in Aromascope.
KC
It is a special feature at “select” theaters.
JM
Pumping an amphitheater full of pheromones is more immersive than 3D.
It is the umami of cinema.
CK
Pumping it full of water would be even more immersive. The word of mouth for some movies would benefit greatly from drowning the audiences. At least until the news got around that no one gets out alive, but they just care about the opening weekend anyway.