ARCHIVES
LINKS
Highlighted Posts
Recent Reviews
The Cagneys
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Something to Sing About (1937)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
A Lion Is In the Streets (1953)
Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)
Never Steal Anything Small (1959)
Shake Hands With the Devil (1959)
Posts by Category
Sunday July 28, 2013
Weekend Box Office: 'The Wolverine' Isn't the Best At What It Does
Among the things that happened at the weekend box office:
- “The Wolverine,” starring Hugh Jackman, opened at $55 million domestic, which is the worst superhero opening since “Ghost Rider 2” grossed $22 million last Feburary. Basically it's on par with “X-Men: First Class,” which opened at $55.1 million in June 2011. It's the 25th-best superhero opening overall but adjust for inflation and it drops to 36th. “Wolverine,” without the definite article, opened at $85 million in 2009, but to bad notices, and topped out at $179. Will be interesting to see if this Wolverine, which has gotten better reviews (mine up tomorrow), has any kind of legs.
- Last weekend's No. 1, “The Conjuring,” fell off by only 47%, astonishingly good in a horror film, and looks poised to break the $100 million barrier.
- No. 3, “Despicable Me,” grossed another $16 million and surpasses “Man of Steel” to become the second-highest-grossing movie of the year, after “Iron Man 3.”
- “Grown Ups 2” fell off by only 42% and passed the $100 million mark. As I tweeted earlier today: Fuck you, America.
- “The Heat,” the Bullock/McCarthy cop comedy, fell off by only 26% and landed in eighth place. It's now at $141.2 million, which is McCarthy's second-best total after “Bridesmaids” ($169 million).
- “Red 2” is dead: $35 million after two weekends.
- “R.I.P.D.” is dead: $24 million after two weekends.
- Have you seen “Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain” yet? Under the radar, it's grossed $31 million, which is the fourth highest-grossing stand-up comedy film of all-time, after Murphy, the Kings of Comedy, and Pryor.
- Woody Allen's latest, “Blue Jasmine,” trailing positive reviews from the likes of David Thomson, opened in six theaters and wound up with the highest per-theater average of the year: $102K per for $613K overall.
MONDAY UPDATE: Turns out “The Wolverine” didn't even open that well: It earned $53.1 million, which is 27th-best, and below “Green Lantern.” Ouch.
It's still a better movie.
“The Wolverine”: a weak opening despite the muscles.
Posted at 08:47 PM on Sunday July 28, 2013 in category Movies - Box Office