With only one wide release, there was no question about what would open in the top spot at the box office this weekend. The real question was whether it would earn enough to make the threequel worthwhile. Unfortunately, it’s too early to wave goodbye to Riddick yet.
The third movie in the Vin Diesel franchise, ‘Riddick‘, opened in first place with $18.6 million. $2.5 million of that total came from IMAX showings. The new sequel opened higher than 2000’s ‘Pitch Black‘, but under the 2004 flop ‘The Chronicles of Riddick‘. Overseas, ‘Riddick’ debuted to $7.4 million from 22 markets. Shot for $38 million (considerably less than the $100+ million ‘Chronicles’), the movie’s opening can’t quite predict whether it will warrant a fourth entry or not. Next week’s drop-off percentage (which I assume will be north of 60%) will give us a feel for where it’s going.
Four-week-old ‘The Butler‘ stayed in the #2 spot with $8.9 million. The $30 million movie will cross the $100 million mark within the next week. Lionsgate’s Mexican comedy ‘Instructions Not Included‘, which shocked the box office last week by finishing in fourth place (despite debuting on just 348 screens), actually climbed up a spot in the Top 10. After adding 369 additional screens to its roster, ‘Instructions’ climbed to third place and earned another $8.1 million, bringing its ten-day total to $20.3 million – and it’s still not even playing on enough screens to be considered a “wide” release yet!
Flip-flopping with ‘Instructions Not Included’ was five-week-old ‘We’re the Millers‘. The comedy’s $7.9 million weekend pushed it past the $123 million mark.
For the third weekend in a row, ‘Planes‘ rounded out the Top 5. The $50 million Disney animated spin-off earned another $4.2 million, bringing its cumulative gross to $79.2 million.
Limited release ‘The Ultimate Life‘ didn’t cause much noise. On 412 screens, the feel-good inspirational sequel only earned $650,000, for a per-screen average of $1,578. As sad as that debut is, it’s better than ‘Hell Baby‘. On ten screens, the Sundance horror comedy only earned $5,300, a painful per-screen average of $530. Ouch.
In its second weekend, ‘One Direction: This Is Us‘ dropped a massive 74%, slipping from first place to sixth. Don’t worry, fans; the $10 million concert documentary has a ten-day total of $23.9 million.
Woody Allen’s ‘Blue Jasmine‘ climbed back into the Top 10 in its seventh weekend. To date, the film has earned $25.4 million.
In its second weekend, the critically-reviled Selena Gomez/Ethan Hawke vehicle ‘Getaway‘ dropped out of the Top 10. The $18 million movie has only earned $8.6 million over the last ten days.
Following suit with Paramount’s attempt to push ‘World War Z’ past the $200 million mark last week, Sony re-released ‘This Is the End‘ this weekend to boost it beyond the $100 million mark. Unfortunately, unlike ‘World War Z’, the apocalyptic comedy couldn’t pull off the feat. On 2,161 screens, it earned $2 million, but is still shy of $100 million by $1.1 million. Can the 13-week-old flick cross the line by Friday?
Top 10:
1. ‘Riddick’ (Universal) – $18,673,000
2. ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler’ (Weinstein) – $8,900,000
3. ‘Instructions Not Included’ (Lionsgate) – $8,100,000
4. ‘We’re the Millers’ (Warner Bros.) – $7,925,000
5. ‘Planes’ (Buena Vista) – $4,274,000
6. ‘One Direction: This Is Us’ (TriStar) – $4,100,000
7. ‘Elysium’ (TriStar) – $3,100,000
8. ‘Blue Jasmine’ (Sony Pictures Classics) – $2,688,000
9. ‘Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters’ (Fox) – $2,500,000
10. ‘The World’s End’ (Focus) – $2,302,000
