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Sunday March 01, 2015

Box Office: Moviegoers Not Conned (Much) By 'Focus'

Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Focus

Smith's movie career is lacking focus.

Here’s how Will Smith’s mass-release (3,000+ theaters) openers have done since 2007: 

Year Title Opening BO Thtrs
2007 I Am Legend $77,211,321 3,606
2008 Hancock $62,603,879 3,965
2012 MIB 3 $54,592,779 4,248
2013 After Earth $27,520,040 3,401
2015 Focus $19,100,000 3,323

Remember the “falling star” joke that kept Eddie Murphy off “SNL” for 20 years? Like that.

Even so, “Focus” won the weekend with $19.1, followed by the third weekend of “Kingsman” at $11.7, the fourth weekend of “SpongeBob” at $11.2, and the third weekend of “Fifty Shades” at $10.9. The opening weekend of “The Lazarus Effect” was in fifth place with $10.6. 

“Fifty Shades” has plunged, boy. It dropped 50 percent on top of the near-record 72 percent drop the week before. It’s the highest-grossing movie of the year so far (at $147) but looks like it’ll have trouble even doubling its opening weekend total of $85. There’s a sexual metaphor here I’ll ignore out of politeness.

A lot of movies—most Oscar winners—increased theater count, including “Birdman” (+806) and “Still Alice (+553); but the oddest increase came from Paramount, whose “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” died in its debut last weekend, receiving abysmal reviews (15% RT) and garnering abysmal box office ($5.9, seventh place). So what does Paramount do? Adds 21 theaters. Result? Movie drops 59.8 percent to 10th place. Ad wizards.

Meanwhile, “American Sniper” keeps on. It dropped only 23.4 percent for another $7.7 million. It’s now grossed $331.1 million. Next weekend it looks set to surpass “Mockingjay–Part 1” ($336.7) as the highest-grossing film of 2014.

Weekend numbers here

Posted at 11:12 AM on Sunday March 01, 2015 in category Movies - Box Office