Weekend Wrap-Up: Peabody and Sherman Travel to the Top
March 18, 2014
The weekend box office didn't shake out as expected with the new films failing to live up to the low end of predictions. Need for Speed didn't earn first place, in fact, it only managed third place. Tyler Perry's Single Mothers Club barely managed fifth place and was the worst opening for Tyler Perry in his directing career. On the positive side, Mr. Peabody and Sherman held on better than expected allowing it to rise to first place. The overall box office sank compared to last weekend, down 21% to $114 million. This is still above last year's box office total by 6%. Year-to-date, 2014 has pulled in almost $2.00 billion, which is 11% ahead of 2013's pace.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman climbed into first place with $21.81 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $63.79 million. It will have direct competition this coming weekend, but even so, this result suggests it will cross $100 million domestically with relative ease.
300: Rise of an Empire slipped to second place with $19.20 million over the weekend for a ten-day total of $78.50 million. It too will get to $100 million with ease, but the 57% sophomore stint drop-off is troubling and puts any milestone beyond $100 million well out of reach.
Need for Speed debuted in third place with $17.84 million during its first three days of release. This is a really bad start for a film that cost $66 million to make. Given its reviews, it likely won't have good legs in theaters. It could perform better internationally, and while there are certainly some signs that it will, it is too soon to say if it will do well enough internationally to make up for this slow start domestically.
Non-Stop was next with $10.62 million over the weekend for a total of $68.81 million after three weeks of release. It is on pace to come close to $100 million, but it likely won't get there.
Tyler Perry's Single Mothers Club barely managed fifth place with $8.08 million. This is less than $250,000 more than The LEGO Movie earned in its sixth weekend of release. It is also the worst opening for Tyler Perry during his directing or acting career. (Daddy's Little Girls and Alex Cross were the previous low points in his career.) The film's reviews are just 19% positive, which isn't the worst in Tyler Perry's career, but is it certainly closer to the lower end than the higher end. On the positive side, it likely didn't cost significantly more than $20 million to make.
There are a few more films of note, starting with The Grand Budapest Hotel, which landed in eighth place with $3.64 million in just 66 theaters. It already has $4.78 million, which is more than most limited releases finish with.
Frozen landed in ninth place with $2.15 million. Normally a result like this wouldn't be worth talking about, except the film has been playing in theaters for so long the DVD and Blu-ray literally come out today. This might finally kill the film's box office run, but there is also a chance it will stick around long enough to crack $400 million.
Finally there's Veronica Mars. This film missed the top ten during its debut with $1.99 million. This is excellent for a film that was playing in under 300 theaters and I'm sure the studios are looking at Kickstarter in another light.
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Frozen, 300: Rise of an Empire, The Lego Movie, Need for Speed, Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club, Muppets Most Wanted, Non-Stop, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Veronica Mars, Tyler Perry