erik lundegaard

Sunday November 09, 2014

Breitbart Gets One Right! ‘Big Hero 6’ Opens at $56 Million, ‘Interstellar’ at $50

Here’s the Breitbart site last March:

Breitbart site 2014 box office predictions

Let’s run those down:

  • “A Million Ways to Die in the West” opened at $16.7 million in May and kept dying. Its $42 million domestic gross was one-fifth what writer-director Seth MacFarlane’s “Ted” grossed two years earlier. It was perhaps the summer’s biggest box-office disappointment in a summer of box-office disappointments.
  • “Dolphin Tale 2” opened at $15 million in September and managed a $41 million haul before sinking out of sight. Not a bomb, really, but still a disappointment, since that total is about half of what “Dolphin Tale” grossed in 2011 ($73 million).
  • “Big Hero 6” opened this weekend to $56 million.

Way to go, Bretibart! One out of three! Ted Williams’ numbers!

Except ... that one hit? To be honest, it’s more bloop single than line-drive into the gap. “Big Hero 6” is a success but its opening weekend is hardly “surprisingly high.” Put it this way: It’s the 24th-best opening weekend for an animated movie (unadjusted), behind such cartoons as “The Lorax” ($70 million in March 2012) and “Monsters vs. Aliens” ($59 million in March 2009).

Hollywood’s other big opener this weekend, Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” finished second with an estimated $50 million total.

Meanwhile, last weekend’s No. 1, “Nightcrawler,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a creepy freelance newsman, fell off 47% to finish in sixth place. Ahead of it? “Gone Girl,” which keeps drawing ($6 million, $145 total), “Ouija” (horror, who cares), and “St. Vincent,” starring Bill Murray, which lost only 97 theaters, dropped only 21%, and has quietly grossed $27 million.

Other movies you should see before they’re gone? “Fury,” which finished in 7th ($5.5 millino, $69 million total), and “Birdman,” which finished in 11th ($2.2 million, $8 million total).

So when was the last time two movies opened to more than $50 million each on the same weekend? You have to go all the way back to June 2013, when “Monsters University” opened with $82 million and “World War Z” opened with $66 million.

I haven’t seen either of the new movies yet. But no matter what they offer, I can’t imagine the entertainment value is as high as watching the Breitbart site fall on its face with its preditions.  

Here’s to next year.

Big Hero 6

After striking out badly with its first two predictions, Breitbart manages a bloop single to left with 'Big Hero 6.'

Posted at 10:59 AM on Sunday November 09, 2014 in category Movies - Box Office  
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