December 13, 201410 yr I like the idea of the success-o-meter. :D It could be something super famous but if "Gone Girl" is the 2nd biggest 18 of all time (is this by total gross or opening week or what scale?) do you know what the biggest is? :o This one surprised me. I'm not sure about buzz/marketing but given it was opening on Halloween weekend I was shocked it couldn't manage top 10. This is by total gross and I believe its The Wolf Of Wall Street :)
January 4, 201510 yr UK BOX OFFICE- DECEMBER 5th December 1. (1) Paddington - £3,837,885 2. (2) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 - £2,249,045 3. (-) Penguins of Madagascar - £1,575,949 4. (3) The Imitation Game - £874,620 5. (4) Horrible Bosses 2 - £642,627 6. (5) Interstellar - £610,289 7. (-) Get Santa - £576,722 8. (6) Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? - £453,261 9. (-) St. Vincent - £389,136 10. (-) Black Sea - £246,309 12th December 1. (-) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - £9,753,642 2. (1) Paddington - £2,909,674 3. (2) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 - £1,089,989 4. (3) Penguins of Madagascar - £1,051,071 5. (4) The Imitation Game - £534,554 6. (7) Get Santa - £448,550 7. (-) Tinkerbell and the Legend of the NeverBeast - £395,454 8. (8) Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? - £381,673 9. (5) Horrible Bosses 2 - £317,160 10. (6) Interstellar - £213,953 19th December 1. (1) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - £5,409,312 2. (2) Paddington - £2,513,675 3. (-) Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb - £1,851,424 4. (-) Dumber and Dumber To - £1,807,059 5. (4) Penguins of Madagascar - £723,939 6. (3) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 - £673,220 7. (-) PK - £649,812 8. (8) Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? - £443,173 9. (5) The Imitation Game - £370,324 10. (6) Get Santa - £366,310 26th December 1. (1) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - 4,249,226 2. (-) Exodus: Gods & Kings - 2,607,453 3. (2) Paddington - 2,558,263 4. (-) Annie - 2,310,453 5. (3) Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb - 1,580,395 6. (4) Dumb and Dumber To - 1,035,587 7. (-) Unbroken - 656,991 8. (5) Penguins of Madagascar - 513,030 9. (6) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 - 449,632 10. (7) PK - 421,407
January 4, 201510 yr US BOX OFFICE 5th December 1. (1) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 - $21,600,000 2. (2) Penguins of Madagascar - $11,100,000 3. (5) Horrible Bosses 2 - $8,600,000 4. (3) Big Hero 6 - $8,130,000 5. (4) Interstellar - $8,000,000 6. (6) Dumb and Dumber To - $4,169,000 7. (7) The Theory of Everything - $2,668,000 8. (8) Gone Girl - $1,500,000 9. (-) The Pyramid - $1,350,000 10. (9) Birdman - $1,150,000 12th December 1. (-) Exodus: Gods and Kings - $24,500,000 2. (1) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 - $13,200,000 3. (2) Penguins of Madagascar - $7,300,000 4. (-) Top Five - $7,210,000 5. (4) Big Hero 6 - $6,145,000 6. (5) Interstellar - $5,500,000 7. (3) Horrible Bosses 2 - $4,630,000 8. (6) Dumb and Dumber To - $2,757,000 9. (7) The Theory of Everything - $2,525,000 10. (15) Wild - $1,550,000 19th December 1. (-) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - $56,220,000/$89,931,554 2. (-) Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, Part 1 - $17,300,000 3. (-) Annie - $16,300,000 4. (1) Exodus: Gods and Kings - $8,065,000 5. (2) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 - $7,750,000 6. (10) Wild - $4,150,000 7. (4) Top Five - $3,470,000 8. (5) Big Hero 6 - $3,563,000 9. (3) Penguins of Madagascar - $3,525,000 10. (-) P.K - $3,500,000 26th December 1. (1) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - $41,420,000 2. (-) Into the Woods - $31,051,923/$46,141,663 3. (-) Unbroken - $30,621,445/$46,055,485 4. (2) Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb - $20,600,000 5. (3) Annie - $16,600,000 6. (5) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 - $10,000,000 7. (-) The Gambler - $9,300,000/$14,130,427 8. (16) The Imitation Game - $7,930,000 9. (4) Exodus: Gods and Kings - $6,750,000 10. (6) Wild - $5,415,000 15. [-] Big Eyes $3,001,738/$4,412,264 16. [-] The Interview $1,800,000/$2,840,000 American Sniper + Selma are doing big business in limited release
January 4, 201510 yr US BOX OFFICE DECEMBER RELEASES TOTALS Due to the Christmas holidays, most films released in December have quite small opening weekends but make loads of money on weekdays so here are the December releases totals as of January 1st [e.g. a film like Night At The Museum 2 has made $37,900,000 from weekends as you can see above but has a $75,000,000 total so far] The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies $198,857,000 [Passed 200M on Friday 2nd] Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb $75,276,000 Into The Woods $72,143,214 Unbroken $69,406,000 Annie $61,225,000 Exodus: Gods And Kings $57,524,000 The Imitation Game $22,669,000 Top Five $21,601,000 Wild $21,314,000 The Gambler $21,266,000 Big Eyes $5,579,981 [As Of 30th December] The Interview $3,815,000 The Woman In Black 2 is also starting surprisingly quite well, just under $8,000,000 opening day which is what some expectations were for the weekend
January 4, 201510 yr Woman in Black 2 takes in $15 million this weekend. Almost double of what most predictions were thinking :o (7-8 million).
January 11, 201510 yr Taken 3 took the top spot on friday with a decent $14.7 million. 20% below the previous Taken but not too bad considering the hype of the previous installation. On the other hand, Selma takes in a disappointing $3.8 million, MUCH below what it was expected to do this weekend. :/ Shame as it's a good film! Hobbit also crashes to #4 this weekend after an amazing streak at the top. 1. TAKEN 3: $14,700,000 2. SELMA: $3,800,000 3. UNBROKEN: $2,600,000 4. THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES: $2,465,000 5. INTO THE WOODS: $2,455,000 6. THE IMITATION GAME: $2,146,000 7. NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB: 8. THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: ANGEL OF DEATH: $1,510,000 9. THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 1: $1,050,000 10. ANNIE (2014): $1,000,000 Edited January 11, 201510 yr by Nelly. S
January 11, 201510 yr In other news, The Woman in Black 2 took in $3.7 million in the UK in its first weekend! Huge, strong start!
January 16, 201510 yr American sniper has debuted to 5.3M on just Thursday night shows :o :o :o :o :o Absolutely gigantic, even bigger than expected, possible +50M 3 day weekend happening :o
January 17, 201510 yr Not all that surprising considering the hype + how soon the events are/were! Very pleased though!
January 17, 201510 yr This weeks box office in America is crazy judging by the rumoured Friday numbers. They are: American Sniper 29-31M, Wedding Ringer + Paddington performing within expectations, Taken 3 plummeting and Blackhat could miss the top 10 and under 5M 4 day weekend
January 17, 201510 yr Predicted to do about $80 million in the first weekend and $100 million in the 4-day holiday frame :o
January 18, 201510 yr US: American sniper $90,200,000 :o Will pass 100M today, one of the biggest box office successes of the last few years by far :o Wedding ringer and paddington opened well with 21M and 19.2M Blackhat completely bombs with 4M Taken 3 -64%, Selma -26%, Imitation Game flat UK (only 2 films so far): The Theory Of Everyhting £2.3M/£12M Into the woods £2M/£5.4M Fantastic holds for both
February 16, 201510 yr From now on I will post the box office mojo article for America on Sunday and screendaily article for UK on Monday as this takes less time and gives more information :)
February 16, 201510 yr From box office mojo: 13th February Box Office USA The highly-anticipated big-screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey scored one of the biggest R-rated debuts ever this weekend, while Kingsman: The Secret Service was strong in second place. Fifty Shades was even more impressive at the international box office, where it opened to a stunning $158 million. For full overseas coverage, check out this weekend's Around-the-World Roundup. The domestic box office Top 12 earned an estimated $196 million, which makes this the biggest weekend ever in February. Playing at 3,646 theaters—the widest opening ever for an R-rated movie—Fifty Shades of Grey scored an estimated $81.7 million over the three-day weekend. That ranks second all-time in the month of February behind The Passion of the Christ; among R-rated movies, it ranks fifth behind The Matrix Reloaded, American Sniper, The Hangover Part II and The Passion. Fifty Shades also opened noticeably higher than the first Twilight movie, which took in $69.6 million in its first weekend back in 2008. Adjusting for ticket price inflation, it looks like the two movies had roughly the same initial attendance. The movie's impressive debut doesn't come as a total surprise: as Universal readily pointed out in recent advertisements, the book upon which its based has sold over 100 million copies worldwide, which makes this a true literary phenomenon. Still, there was always a risk that those who read the book in private wouldn't be as willing to watch the movie's more explicit scenes in public. Universal's marketing campaign addressed that issue by focusing on the romance over the sadomasochism, while also subtly suggesting there was more to see (if, of course, you bought a ticket). That strategy was more or less effective, though there's reason to believe a significant number of older book readers stayed away; specifically, Universal's exit polling indicated that 42 percent of the audience was under 25 years of age, which seems a bit high. The success of Fifty Shades of Grey can also be attributed to a very smart scheduling decision. Originally, the movie was set to open in August 2014, but the start of production was delayed to the point where that date was no longer feasible. Instead of picking another fairly arbitrary date, Universal staked a claim to Valentine's Day. That move seems to have paid off, as the movie set a new Valentine's Day record with a massive $36.7 million (over 50 percent higher than the previous record). A chunk of that surely came from date night crowds; in general, men represented 32 percent of the Fifty Shades audience, which has to be significantly higher than the male share of book readers. It's worth keeping in mind, of course, that the movie will almost certainly drop off quickly from here. Female-skewing literary adaptations tend to be fairly front-loaded—the Twilight sequels being the most radical version of this—as do romances that open over Valentine's Day weekend. Add in the fact that it's receiving mixed word-of-mouth ("C+" CinemaScore), and it's hard to see how Fifty Shades of Grey reaches $200 million. A good comparison is Valentine's Day, which did 51 percent of its total business on this same weekend in 2010. If Fifty Shades performs similarly, it will ends its run with around $160 million. Kingsman: The Secret Service was arguably more impressive than Fifty Shades of Grey this weekend. Playing at 3,204 locations, the comic book adaptation opened to an estimated $35.6 million, which is in the same ballpark as recent action movies Taken 3 ($39.2 million) and The Equalizer ($34.1 million). For the four-day weekend, it will likely wind up over $40 million, which trounces past President's Day titles like The Wolfman, Constantine, Jumper, and A Good Day to Die Hard. Fox's decision to schedule Kingsman against Fifty Shades of Grey raised some eyebrows: was it really possible for this R-rated action movie to make money against the Valentine's Day juggernaut that is Fifty Shades? In hindsight, this seems like a particularly savvy move: by providing such a stark contrast, the movie wound up being the de facto counter choice over the holiday weekend. Of course, scheduling alone won't do the trick—the movie also needs to seem like it delivers the goods, which Kingsman seemed to do. The movie looked like a lot of fun, and had a wave of strong buzz thanks to Fox's aggressive pre-screening program. The movie also benefited from the fact that it fit equally in to two genres that are near their peak right now: comic book adaptations and spy movies. In particularly, Kingsman got a lot of mileage out of the critic quote "More Badass Than Bond," which is surely helped by the fact that 007 is coming off his most-successful outing in decades. Kingsman received a "B+" CinemaScore, which aligns nicely with its 71 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie should hold decently in the coming weeks, and has a solid chance of ultimately reaching $100 million. After a surprisingly strong debut last weekend, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water fell 45 percent to an estimated $30.5 million this weekend. That's a fairly steep drop for a movie like this; in comparison, The LEGO Movie was off 28 percent on the same weekend last year. Still, the movie is poised to pass $100 million on Monday, and should ultimately reach $150 million before the end of its run. American Sniper eased 29 percent to $16.4 million, which ranks eighth all-time among fifth weekends. On Sunday, it passed $300 million, and remains on track to ultimately become the highest-grossing movie from 2014 with over $340 million. Jupiter Ascending rounded out the Top Five with an estimated $9.4 million, which is off 49 percent from last weekend. The big-budget sci-fi flick has so far earned $32.6 million, and still has an off-chance of ultimately reaching $50 million. Meanwhile, Seventh Son dropped 43 percent to $4.15 million, which brings its total to a meager $13.4 million. After nearly a month in limited release, Still Alice expanded to 502 locations and earned an estimated $1.71 million. To date, the movie has grossed $4.63 million; with Julianne Moore pegged as a sure thing to win the Best Actress Oscar next Sunday, Still Alice should continue to hold well in the weeks to come. Old Fashioned, a Christian romance that was positioned as Fifty Shades counter-programming, earned an estimated $1.1 million at 224 locations. That seems to be the biggest weekend ever for a faith-based movie playing at fewer than 300 theaters, and should be considered a decent result for distributor Freestyle Releasing. What We Do in the Shadows opened to an excellent $65,800 at two locations, which translates to a $32,900 per-theater average. The movie played on a single screen at each location, and nearly all its shows were sell outs. The well-reviewed vampire comedy will expand to the top 25 markets by the end of the month. Musical The Last 5 Years earned an estimated $45,100 through three locations this weekend. It was also available on video-on-demand, though those numbers aren't currently available.
February 23, 201510 yr THIS WEEK: 20th-22nd February I will do a quick summary underneath for key points :) ENGLAND: Following last week’s tremendous opening, it was only a case of how quickly Fifty Shades of Grey could become the UK’s highest grossing 18-rated film of all time, The answer was very quickly as Universal’s raunchy adaptation secured top spot with a second weekend of $7m (£4.56m) saw it to $38.9m (£25.2m) to comfortably sail past The Wolf of Wall Street’s UK result of $34.9m (£22.7m). How far it can now go remains to be seen given that it did drop 66% on its opening weekend, but it will potentially hit its next milestone of £30m by the end of next weekend. Also for Universal, The Theory of Everything (which saw Eddie Redmayne win the Oscar last night) added $673,000 (£438,000) after a slim drop of 17% in its eighth weekend. The Stephen Hawking biopic is now on the cusp of £20m and stands at $30.6m (£19.89m). Blackhat could only manage a $224,000 (£146,000) UK debut at a soft site average of $1,513 (£984) for one of Michael Mann’s worst-ever UK openings. Ali debuted with $193,000 (£125,573) but that came from a release of just 17 sites initially. DISNEY Enjoying a 39% boost in its fourth weekend was Big Hero 6 which remained in second with $3.9m (£2.57m). Disney’s latest animation prospered over half term and stands at $24.8m (£16.17m), a total that could receive an Oscar win uplift this coming weekend. In terms of Walt Disney Animation Studios outings in the UK, it will shortly overtake Bolt’s final tally of $27.5m (£17.9m). Also for Disney, Into the Woods has amassed $14.8m (£9.64m). STUDIOCANAL Also enjoying a half term boost was Shaun the Sheep Movie with a $3.7m (£2.4m) third weekend. StudioCanal’s big screen adaptation has now crossed the £10m mark to stand at $15.9m (£10.4m). Also for StudioCanal, homegrown hit Paddington has amassed $56.8m (£36.95m) following a $435,000 (£283,063) weekend, while The Imitation Game reached $24.9m (£16.2m). FOX Falling just 25% in its fourth week, Kingsman: The Secret Service added $1.9m (£1.2m) for $20.6m (£13.4m) to date. Fox’s adaptation is on track to become Matthew Vaughn’s best-ever UK performer, currently X-Men: First Class at $23.12m (£15.03m) which is shortly followed by Stardust with $23.10m (£15.02m). Also for Fox, Selma dropped 34% on its way to a $442,000 (£287,520) for $3.7m (£2.4m) after three weeks in play. SONY The week’s highest new entry came in the form of Sony’s The Wedding Ringer with a solid $1.5m (£990,000) from its 384 sites. Its opening includes $252,000 (£164,000) from Valentine’s Day previews last weekend. PARAMOUNT Project Almanac posted a non-final $1.3m (£865,000) UK bow from its 365 sites. Effectively, Paramount’s found footage time travel thriller had a seven-day opening having landed in cinemas last Monday [Feb 16], with Mon-Thurs providing $572,000 (£372,000) of its opening figure. EONE Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots fell a decent 27% on its way to a second weekend of $771,000 (£502,046) for $3.1m (£2m). eOne’s animation leaves UK cinemas on March 1, ahead of a TV broadcast. WARNER BROS Now in its third week of release, Warner Bros’ Jupiter Ascending took a further $667,000 (£434,000) for $6m (£3.9m) to date, the best UK result for the Wachowskis outside of The Matrix trilogy. Also for Warner Bros, American Sniper has now shot to $20m (£13m) following a $636,000 (£414,000) sixth weekend, while Cake landed with a UK opening of $172,000 (£112,000) from its 110 sites. ARTIFICIAL EYE Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy got off to a $64,000 (£42,030) start in the UK from its 23 sites through Artificial Eye. That’s narrowly behind the $70,000 (£45,516) debut of Berberian Sound Studio from the same amount of sites, which went on to take $249,000 (£162,000). SODA PICTURES Released in 14 sites through Soda Pictures, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter found $24,000 (£16,314) on its UK debut. UPCOMING RELEASES This week sees saturation releases for Fox’s The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (opens Feb 26), More2Screen’s Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of (opens Feb 26), Universal’s The Boy Next Door and Warner Bros’ Focus. Icon’s critically acclaimed horror It Follows receives a wide release, while Metrodome’s White God and StudioCanal’s Catch Me Daddy are among the films receiving a limited release. USA: Coming off a massive holiday weekend, Fifty Shades of Grey plummeted 73 percent in its second outing. Still, the movie easily held on the top spot this weekend with $23.2 million. Among the new releases, McFarland, USA and The DUFF did solid business, while Hot Tub Time Machine 2 flopped. Fifty Shades of Grey's 73 percent drop is steeper than the second weekend declines for The Fault in our Stars, Valentine's Day, and all five Twilight movies. It's the second-biggest decline ever for a movie playing at over 3,100 locations; the worst belongs to the Friday the 13th remake, which fell 80 percent on this same weekend in 2009. Adapted from an immensely popular book and opening on Valentine's Day weekend, Fifty Shades of Grey was always going to be fairly front-loaded. Still, the movie's horrible reviews (25 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and weak word-of-mouth ("C+" CinemaScore) surely contributed in some way. Fifty Shades has now earned $130.1 million, and could be on track to close below $170 million. That's still a huge win—especially considering how well it's doing overseas—though it's not quite the monumental hit that its opening weekend may have suggested. In its second weekend, Kingsman: The Secret Service fell 52 percent to an estimated $17.5 million. That hold is a bit better than past President's Day comic book adaptations like Ghost Rider, Daredevil and Constantine. Still, it isn't the kind of second week performance that indicates exceptional word-of-mouth. To date, the movie has earned $67.1 million, and still has a solid chance of ultimately topping $100 million. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water held on to third place with an estimated $15.5 million (off 51 percent). The movie has now earned $125.2 million total, and remains on track to eventually reach $155 million. At 2,755 locations, McFarland, USA led this weekend's newcomers with an estimated $11.3 million. That's on the upper end of a modest range for recent sports dramas and Kevin Costner movies. It's a bit higher than Disney's last sports drama, Million Dollar Arm ($10.5 million), and is also above star Kevin Costner's Draft Day ($9.8 million). It's also near Costner's 3 Days to Kill, which opened to $12.2 million on the same weekend last year. The audience for McFarland, USA was split evenly between men and women, and skewed older (60 percent above 25). It received a great "A" CinemaScore, which suggests word-of-mouth will be strong. By the end of its run, McFarland, USA could reach $30 million. The DUFF rounded out the Top Five with an estimated $11 million. That's nowhere close to high school comedies like Mean Girls and Easy A, though that's also an unreasonable bar: from a marketing standpoint, The DUFF seems to be a far more modest venture. CBS Films did a nice job getting the word out with a robust screening program, and ran a targeted marketing effort that struck a chord with young female moviegoers. According to CBS Films, the audience was 75 percent female and 68 percent under the age of 25. With an "A-" CinemaScore, decent reviews and little competition over the next three weeks, The DUFF has a shot at ultimately hitting $30 million. In sixth place, American Sniper fell 41 percent to an estimated $9.65 million. The movie now ranks 35th all-time with $319.6 million—ahead of Iron Man and Transformers—and remains on track to pass The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 to become the highest-grossing movie from 2014. Opening at 2,880 locations, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 opened in seventh place with a horrible $5.8 million. That's off 58 percent from the first movie's $14 million debut; while that drop isn't quite as bad as Machete Kills (67 percent) or Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (78 percent), it's still quite poor for a franchise continuation. Among early 2015 releases, the $5.8 million haul is a bit higher than Blackhat ($3.9 million) and Mortdecai ($4.2 million), and about on par with Strange Magic ($5.5 million). A couple of factors played in to the movie's poor opening. While it's nice for a sequel to differentiate itself from its predecessor, this one seemed to do so in all the wrong ways. Beyond replacing John Cusack, the story seemed to go in a different, less appealing direction by sending the guys to many different time periods instead of setting up a Back to the Future scenario in a single one. The five-year gap between the first and second installment was also problematic. Comedy sequels need to either arrive in close proximity to the original—two to three years—or far enough after for nostalgia to have kicked in. Finally, atrocious reviews likely kept some casual fans of the original away from theaters this weekend. Paramount is reporting that the audience was 63 percent male and 76 percent over the age of 25. That audience awarded the movie a poor "C-" CinemaScore, which suggests that this is going to fall off quickly; ultimately, it would be surprising if this reached $15 million. Still Alice expanded to 765 locations and earned an estimated $2.17 million this weekend. With star Julianne Moore slated to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards tonight, it's likely that Sony Classics will be able to hang on to all (or most) of these theaters next weekend. With $7.96 million in the bank so far, there's a realistic chance that Still Alice winds up ahead of fellow Sony Classics movies Foxcatcher ($12 million) and Whiplash ($11.3 million and counting).
February 23, 201510 yr Key Points England: Fifty shades of Greg is biggest 18 rated film of all time Wedding ringer does solid with over £900k Almanac disappoints with just over £800k for 7 days Blackhat bombs with £145k Cake does ok with £112k America: Fifty shades plummets McFarland, USA opens well with 11M The Duff also did very well with 10.8M Hot tube time machine 2 bombs as nobody wanted to see this unnecessary sequel
March 3, 201510 yr US BOX OFFICE While it didn't quite return Will Smith to his former box office glory, Focus (2015) still easily took the top spot on a quiet weekend at the box office. Kingsman: The Secret Service and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water held on to second and third place, respectively, while The Lazarus Effect got off to a so-so start in fifth. Focus opened to $18.7 million this weekend, which is a bit lower than Crazy, Stupid, Love.'s debut (that's the last movie from directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa). It ranks in the bottom half of Smith's movies; it is at least ahead of Seven Pounds ($14.9 million), though that movie's December opening held is back a bit. Seven Pounds wrapped up its run with $70 million, which is a number Focus is going to have a tough time matching. The lower-than-expected haul could be placed on Smith's shoulders: MIB 3 and After Earth are the entirety of his output in the past six years, which probably wasn't a great way to maintain his A-list brand. The real problem, though, was the movie's muddled marketing effort. Advertisements successfully conveyed the movie's tone, and the fact that it was about con artists. Beyond that, though, the marketing was fairly indecipherable. There was no clear hook, and no sense for who or what these con artists were robbing from. Compare that to Ocean's Eleven, where it was abundantly clear that George Clooney and his merry band of all-star actors were hitting three of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas. Still, while this isn't a fantastic debut, it sure isn't a bad one, either: in three days, Focus (2015) has already earned more than recent flops Mortdecai and Blackhat combined. Focus's audience was 53 percent female and 88 percent over the age of 25, and awarded the movie a so-so "B" CinemaScore. Add in the movie's middling reviews, and it's likely that Focus falls off at a steady rate over the next few weeks. It could get to $60 million, but probably won't go much higher than that. Kingsman: The Secret Service took second place at the box office for the third weekend in a row. The movie eased 35 percent to $11.9 million, which brings its 17-day total to $85.8 million. Kingsman now appears on track to earn at least $105 million by the end of its run. In third place, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water added $10.8 million, which is off 35 percent from last weekend. The movie has now earned $139.9 million total, and is on track to wrap up between $160 and $170 million. After leading the box office for the past two weeks, Fifty Shades of Grey fell to fourth place with $10.6 million (down 53 percent). Through 17 days, the movie has earned $147.4 million, and is tracking to finish its run around $165 million. Playing at 2,666 locations, The Lazarus Effect opened in fifth place with $10.2 million. That's on the low end of producer Jason Blum's movies, though it is at least better than 2013's Dark Skies ($8.2 million). It's also a bit lower than Relativity Media's Oculus, which opened to $12 million last April. In the past 18 months or so, original horror has been a very tough sell; the days of routine $20-million-plus debuts seem to be over. Still, there seems to be a solid business model here: make the movies for next-to-nothing, hit $10 million or so with a modest marketing effort, and close in the $25 to $35 million range. The Lazarus Effect is going to wind up on the low end of that—probably around $25 million. The movie's audience was 52 percent female and 60 percent under the age of 25. They awarded the movie a "C-" CinemaScore, which is pretty standard for this genre. Coming off their opening weekends, McFarland, USA and The DUFF fell 29 percent and 37 percent, respectively. Through 10 days, McFarland, USA has earned $22 million, while The DUFF has grossed $19.8 million. In its seventh weekend in wide release, American Sniper eased 26 percent to $7.4 million. The blockbuster war drama has now taken in $330.8 million at the domestic box office; next weekend, it will pass The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 to become the highest-grossing movie from 2014. Coming off Julianne Moore's Best Actress win at last Sunday's Academy Awards, Still Alice expanded to 1,318 locations and earned an estimated $2.7 million. That's the widest release for a Sony Classics movie in over six years. To date, Still Alice has grossed just shy of $12 million, and will ultimately wind up earning quite a bit more than fellow Classics titles Foxcatcher ($12 million) and Whiplash ($12.3 million and counting). Best Picture winner Birdman expanded to 1,213 locations and earned $1.92 million this weekend. The movie is currently available to watch at home, which is likely where the biggest Oscar boost will take place. To date, Birdman has earned $40.2 million, which is a bit below 2011 Best Picture winner The Artist ($44.7 million). Playing at 384 locations, A La Mala opened to $1.4 million this weekend. That's a pretty standard debut for a Pantelion movie; ultimately, look for this to wind up in the $3 to $4 million range.UK BOX OFFICE Fox’s sequel scores $5.8m (£3.74m) debut, including previews, to dethrone Fifty Shades of Grey; Universal’s raunchy adaptation crosses £30m mark after 17 days in play. The grey pound has proved potent again at the UK box office as The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opened at number one. Fox’s sequel checked into the chart with a $5.8m (£3.74m) bow, including just over $1.1m (£700,000) in previews, from 589 sites. It’s worth noting that the film’s Fri-Sun tally of $4.7m (£3.04m) would have also seen it dethrone Fifty Shades of Grey. The debut is up on its predecessor’s $3.4m (£2.2m) debut from 504 sites before it went on to take $31.4m (£20.4m), a target that should be surpassed by the sequel especially as it’s likely to prosper midweek given its older-skewing audience. Also for Fox, Kingsman: The Secret Service shot to an extra $1m (£667,464) for $22.4m (£14.55m) and will soon become Matthew Vaughn’s best-ever UK performer, while Birdman boosted 37% following its Oscar wins and has now grossed $8.7m (£5.67m). Selma has marched to $4.2m (£2.75m) after four weeks in play. UNIVERSAL It may have been prevented from a third straight week as the UK’s number one, but Fifty Shades of Grey had a different milestone to celebrate this weekend as it crossed the £30m mark after 17 days in play. Universal’s adaptation fell 51% on its way to a $3.4m (£2.24m) third weekend for a terrific $46.6m (£30.3m) to date. It will now be setting its sights on finishing over £35m at the UK box office and given what it’s done so far, you wouldn’t bet against it. Also for Universal, The Boy Next Door opened with $625,000 (£406,000) from its 337 sites to chart seventh. That’s at least ahead of director Rob Cohen’s previous UK outing, Alex Cross, which bowed to $349,000 (£226,780) from 212 sites. The Theory of Everything has now reached $31.7m (£20.6m) after nine weeks in play. WARNER BROS Landing in 458 sites, Focus got off to a healthy $2.9m (£1.9m) start in the UK to see it chart third. Warner Bros’ con artist drama scored co-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s best-ever debut, ahead of I Love You Phillip Morris’ $1.6m (£1.1m) from 342 sites, and will soon become their highest grossing film, currently the $5.2m (£3.4m) result of Crazy, Stupid, Love. Also for Warner Bros, American Sniper took a further $259,000 (£168,000) for $20.7m (£13.4m) after seven weeks in play, while Jupiter Ascending is now up to $6.5m (£4.2m) following a $216,000 (£140,000) fourth weekend. Cake dropped heavily in its second weekend and has so far grossed $336,000 (£218,000). DISNEY Dropping to fourth was Big Hero 6 with a $1.9m (£1.2m) fifth weekend. Disney’s animation is now up to $27.2m (£17.7m) and will see have its eye on crossing the £20m mark. STUDIOCANAL Shaun the Sheep Movie rounded off this week’s top five with a $1.55m (£1m) fourth weekend. StudioCanal’s big screen adaptation is now up to $17.9m (£11.6m). Also for StudioCanal, Paddington and The Imitation Game have reached $57m (£37.07m) and $25m (£16.3m), respectively, while well-received thriller Catch Me Daddy could only post a $41,000 (£26,584) debut from its 23 sites with one still to report. ICON FILM DISTRIBUTION Critically acclaimed horror It Follows scared up a respectable non-final $570,000 (£370,442) from its 190 sites through Icon Film Distribution. The debut is ahead of stablemate The Babadook which bowed with $534,000 (£347,512), albeit from fewer sites at 147. Like that film, It Follows will hope that its strong reviews and word-of-mouth will prevent it from the usual fast burn nature of horrors at the UK box office. SONY The Wedding Ringer followed up its solid opening with a $570,000 (£370,000) second weekend for a running tally of $2.8m (£1.8m) through Sony. MORE2SCREEN Backstreet Boys documentary Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of grossed $242,000 (£157,161) from its 231 screens on Thursday [Feb 26] through More2Screen. The screenings saw a live performance by the band at London’s Dominion Theatre broadcast live following the film. Overall, the event was broadcast to 480 cinemas in 16 territories across Europe, delivering over $384,000 (£250,000). PARAMOUNT Falling over 50% (excluding previews) in its second weekend, Paramount’s Project Almanac added $210,000 (£136,000) for $1.8m (£1.16m) to date. ARTIFICIAL EYE Currently playing in 22 sites, Artificial Eye’s The Duke of Burgundy is up to $143,000 (£92,499) after a $32,000 (£20,712) second weekend. METRODOME Including just over $7,700 (£5,000) in festival previews, Metrodome’s White God posted a UK debut of $27,000 (£17,475) from its 14 sites. UPCOMING RELEASES This week sees saturation releases for Fox’s Unfinished Business and Sony’s Chappie, while Curzon Film World’s Still Alice receives a wide release. Universal’s Kill the Messenger, Metrodome’s Hyena and Peccadillo Pictures’ Appropriate Behaviour are among the films receiving a limited release.
March 3, 201510 yr Also of note: Paddington has become StudioCanal’s biggest ever worldwide release. The big screen adaptation of the marmalade-loving bear has surpassed Non-Stop’s worldwide haul of $236m to stand at $241m, which includes an estimated $171m from international territories and $70m from the US, and makes it the highest grossing family title of all time released by a non-US studio. In StudioCanal territories, the UK leads the way with just over $57m (£37m) while France and Germany will end up around 3m and 2m admissions, respectively. Other highlights include a $7m combined total in Russia and Ukraine, a $6.3m total in Scandinavia and more than 2.4m admissions in 15 Latin American territories. Paddington will be released in China this week on over 4,000 screens, with further releases set for Portugal (March 12), Israel (March 26), Thailand (March 28) and Japan (Jan 2016). Very impressive for a film that looked like a major flop at one point What films have surprised you at the box office this weekend?
March 8, 201510 yr US: Chappie- 13M BOMB Unfinished Business- 4.8M BOMB Marigold hotel 2- 8.6M Solid opening UK: 1. Marigold hotel 2 £1.9M Focus £1.3M Unfinished Business £930k Surprisingly big opening
Create an account or sign in to comment