Recapping Last Weekend

 

Exodus: Gods and Kings ran way with the weekend box office by bringing in $24.1 million in its debut. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 continued its strong theater run with a $12.7 million weekend in its fourth weekend. The third Hunger Games has now brought in $279 million domestically and another $334 million overseas in just under four weeks of release. Penguins of Madagascar came in third with $7.2 million. Top Five earned $6.9 million in its debut weekend and Big Hero 6 rounded out the top five with $6 million in its sixth weekend of release.

Really the only reason Top Five failed to crack the top three of the list was the fact that it only opened in 979 theaters across the country. The other top five movies over the weekend were shown in an average of 3,307 theaters. Top Five brought in $7,043 per theater, which would have translated out to around $23 million with a full opening.

Wild is another movie performing well in a small release. Last weekend, the Reese Witherspoon film played in 116 theaters and brought in an average of $13,198 to each of them. While it it’s highly unlikely it would have put up per-theater numbers like that in a wider release, for the fun of it, that would translate out to roughly $43 million in a full release. (Wild will expand to 850 theaters this weekend.) That $13,198 number actually ranked third among per-theater leaders. Inherent Vice, played in five theaters and brought in $65,637 in each while The Imitation Game brought in $34,010 in each of its 25 theaters.

 

Opening This Weekend

 

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

 

Christopher Orr of The Atlantic liked this movie for the simple fact that it means the franchise is over. You also can’t count Peter Travers of Rolling Stone as a fan of this trilogy. Many others have enjoyed these films. The previous two films opened to $84.6 million and $73.6 million, respectively. This one opened on Tuesday of this week and earned an estimated $11.2 million. It’s already earned $122 million overseas.

Box Office Prediction: $70-$80 million for five days or maybe $91 million

 

 Annie

 

This movie adaptation of the classic musical stars Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz as well as Quvenzhane Wallis as Annie. Bob Mondello notes that this Annie is just the latest to use non-traditional casting to breathe new life into a project. This is the fourth adaptation of the musical and the first movie adaption since 1982. The ’82 film grossed $57 million during its theatrical run, which equates to about $141 million in today’s dollars. It was the 10th highest-grossing film of 1982, which also included E.T., Tootsie, Porky’s, Rocky III and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan among others. It will be interesting to see if the Sony hack by North Korea will have any effect on Annie‘s box office receipts. The film was one of five leaked early on in the attack. Cameron Diaz plays teacher Miss Colleen Hannigan and said her favorite part of the role was yelling at the kids. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian hated the movie and likely hates his life as well. Jamie Foxx had glowing words for Quvenzhane Wallis, who received an Oscar nomination for her leading role in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Box Office Prediction: $17.6 million

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

 

The familiar faces like Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Robin Williams (RIP) are back in this third installment in the series. The first Night at the Museum opened with $30.4 million back in 2006 on its way to $250.8 million at the domestic box office. The second installment, Battle of the Smithsonian, opened five years ago with the tune of $54 million on its way to $177 million domestically.

Box Office Prediction: $26 million 

Mr. Turner

 

Mike Leigh directs this biography of painter J.M.W. Turner. It’s “beautiful” by several accounts. An exact number of theaters isn’t available, but Mr. Turner will be out in limited release this weekend.

Catch It Before It’s Gone

 

Keller 8 welcomes St. Vincent and Ouija this weekend. If you need your scary movie fix, see Ouija. Otherwise, see St. Vincent with Bill Murrary, Melissa McCarthy ad Naomi Watts.

Make It A Redbox Night

Redbox welcomes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, If I Stay and Into The Storm this week among its new releases.

 

 

Coming Soon

 

Inside Out

This new movie from Pixar comes to theaters in June of 2015

Terminator: Genisys

 

Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. It opens in theaters on May 15, 2015.

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