Weekend Report: 'Ride Along' Avoids 'Awkward Moment,' Three-peats Over Super Bowl Weekend
by Ray Subers -- February 2, 2014
Over Super Bowl weekend, newcomers That Awkward Moment and Labor Day failed to generate much enthusiasm. As a result, buddy comedy Ride Along cruised in to first place for the third-straight week.
For the three-day weekend, the Top 12 earned an estimated $72.4 million. While that's a slight improvement over this same weekend last year, it's still a poor way to kick off the month of February.
Ride Along fell 42 percent to an estimated $12.3 million. It's now earned just shy of $93 million, which puts it ahead of star Kevin Hart's Think Like a Man ($91.5 million).
Other recent movies that held first place for three-straight weeks include Gravity and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Disney Animation blockbuster Frozen added an estimated $9.3 million, which was up two percent from last weekend. The increase can be attributed to the addition of the Sing-Along version of the movie, which accounted for roughly $2.2 million.
Frozen's $9.3 million 10th weekend ranks fourth all-time behind Titanic, Avatar and Slumdog Millionaire. The movie has now grossed over $360 million, and is on pace to pass Despicable Me 2 ($368.1 million) by Valentine's Day.
In third place, That Awkward Moment opened to an estimated $9 million. That's a bit better than 21 and Over ($8.8 million) and Don Jon ($8.7 million), though it's also the lowest nationwide debut yet for a Zac Efron movie.
Focus Features, which took on That Awkward Moment as part of its merger with FilmDistrict, executed a modest marketing campaign targeted almost exclusively at younger women. Not surprisingly, that's who turned out for the movie: the audience was 64 percent female and 61 percent under the age of 25. That's the kind of breakdown that suggests a steep second weekend drop; add in middling word-of-mouth ("B" CinemaScore), and it would be surprising if this wound up with more than $25 million.
The Nut Job fell 37 percent to $7.6 million. On Sunday, the animated flick passed $50 million.
Universal's Lone Survivor rounded out the Top Five with $7.2 million. On Saturday, the Afghanistan war drama became the final 2013 release to reach $100 million. Overall, 35 movies from 2013 reached that level, which is a new record (previously record was 2009 with 32).
At 2,584 locations, Labor Day bombed with $5.4 million. Among director Jason Reitman's movies, it's a bit above Young Adult ($3.4 million) and Thank You for Smoking ($4.5 million), though those movies were playing in less than half as many theaters. It's also about on par with Kate Winslet's Revolutionary Road, which opened to $5.2 million at 1,058 locations.
The movie's audience was 59 percent female and 71 percent over the age of 25. It received a "B-" CinemaScore, and will be lucky to get anywhere near $20 million by the end of its run.
With $133.6 million, American Hustle is now director David O. Russell's highest-grossing movie ever ahead of last year's Silver Linings Playbook.
Gravity earned an estimated $1.1 million from its IMAX re-release, which accounted for over half of its $2 million weekend gross. So far, Gravity has earned just under $264 million at the domestic box office, and should find its way past $270 million in the next few weeks.
Around-the-World Roundup
Frozen continued its remarkable run overseas this weekend. It added $24 million—an improvement over last weekend—for a new total north of $500 million. It had the biggest animated opening ever in Sweden ($2.2 million), and is now the highest-grossing animated movie ever in South Korea ($44.7 million). Its worldwide total reached $860 million, and it's poised to add substantially to that total when it opens in China this coming weekend.
The Wolf of Wall Street earned $14.2 million across the nine markets being handled by Universal Pictures. It took first place for the third-straight weekend in Germany ($4.7 million) and the U.K. ($4.2 million), and also added $2.4 million in Spain. In Japan (a Paramount market) it opened to $1.5 million, which is about on par with The Great Gatsby.
Robocop (2014) opened to $5.5 million from Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore this weekend. That's about even with the first Iron Man, which reinforces the notion that Asian markets are going to be particularly strong for this Sony remake. Robocop (2014) expands in to 40 more territories next weekend ahead of its domestic debut on February 12th.
