Weekend Estimates: Dumb and Dumber Top
November 16, 2014
The box office chart is starting to take on a decidedly seasonal look, with a comedy sequel topping the chart, a smattering of Oscar hopefuls doing well in limited release, and not a single top 10 film dropping by more than 50% from last weekend. The comedy sequel, Dumb and Dumber To, will narrowly win the weekend with a shade over $38 million, per Universal’s Sunday estimate. That’s $2 million more than Big Hero 6 will post in its second weekend in release. The animated adventure will be off just 36% from last weekend. Also posting an impressive hold from a big opening weekend is Interstellar, with $29.1 million—39% below its opening frame.
The best performer in the top 10 on a week-to-week basis will be Birdman, which will improve 6%, while expanding from 460 to 857 theaters. Impressive as the film’s performance is so far, its theater average has been declining fairly rapidly as it expands, suggesting that it might not have a huge amount of cross-over appeal, unless it starts to get some serious awards buzz.
Another awards hopeful posting impressive numbers this weekend is Foxcatcher, which will open with around $288,000 in just six theaters, for an average of $48,000. That’s slight better than the opening weekend achieved by The Theory of Everything, which expanded to 41 theaters this weekend and will earn around $738,000 for a still impressive average of $18,000.
Other limited releases performing well this weekend include The Homesman, with $48,000 from four venues, and documentary National Gallery with $17,435 from two locations.
Somewhat less impressive debuts, given the publicity surrounding each film, will be posted by Rosewater, with $1.2 million from 371 theaters, and Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas, with $1 million from 410 theaters.
Bruce Nash, bruce.nash@the-numbers.com
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Interstellar, Big Hero 6, Foxcatcher, Dumb and Dumber To, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Rosewater, The Homesman, National Gallery, Saving Christmas