And they did so very handily, as Zootopia only dropped 31% to post a sophomore frame of $51M - which puts it at a ridic $143M in only 10 days. It's actually out-pacing other spring animated hits so far, like The LEGO Movie ($130M) and The Lorax ($121M). While 10 Cloverfield Lane posted a very respectable $24M opening, it was only a little bit over half of Cloverfield's opening back in 2008. It'll be hard to gauge how the film's legs will turn out, as word spreads that it's connected to the original in the thinnest of ways, if at all. The other three wide openers all bombed terrifically, in their own ways. The Young Messiah, the latest attempt to pander to the Christian audience, could only capture $3.2M worth of church groups, making it the worst opening Christian-aimed release in over 1,000 theaters Paul Blart's foray into drama - Little Boy, last spring.
But the biggest story is the Earth-scorching bomb that was Sacha Baron Cohen's The Brothers' Grimsby, opening to a pathetic $3.2M and coming in 8th place this weekend - that's less than a third of Deadpool's 5th weekend. An opening this bad will make studios think twice, hell even three times, before green lighting any of Cohen's comedies for a very long time.
And another week of the PTA picks make me look a dumb-dumb, as all three of limited releases scored PTA points in their opening. Eye In The Sky took top honors and 5 points with its $22K average, barely staving off Hello, My Name Is Doris and its close $21K. A24's Remember even got in on the fun, scoring 2 PTA points of its own, and 10 Cloverfield Lane managed to sneak away a point for itself as well.
This week's wide releases...
The Divergent Series: Allegiant (LGF) - Let's face it: the goddamn Divergent series isn't on the uptick. The first movie opened well ($54M in 2014) and ended at $150M, which is decent for its genre. But when the sequel Insurgent failed to build on that last year with an opening of $52M, everyone realized this Hunger Games-wannabe was trending downward already. Lionsgate will be releasing The Divergent Series: Allegiant in 3,740 3D, IMAX, and 2D theaters this weekend, and honestly, it's not looking good for the box office prospects of Tris and whoever else is in this series. If, like me, you haven't seen an iota of either Divergent film, the series follows Tris, the chosen one, a young girl who's inherently different and with her special-ness, must bring down the oppressive government of this near-future dystopian times. Or something like that.
Either way, Divergent is losing steam. Allegiant isn't expected to come close to either of the first two films' $50M+ opening, as many are expecting a series low opening in the mid-$30's. Star Shailene Woodley has failed to capitalize on her series' success, nullifying any star power she may have had if she'd followed the Jennifer Lawrence School of Being In As Many Films As Possible. And although the film features several respected actors, such as Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet, Octavia Spencer, and Jeff Daniels, they're presumptively hindered by the restrictions of their YA source material. The young girls will show up to root on Tris and her love triangle with The Fault In Our Stars' Ansel Elgort and Whiplash's Miles Teller, but at this point, it seems everyone else has checked out.
The Prediction - Allegiant will continue the decline of Divergent's returns and open to only $36M, gain up to 10 Top 5 points, maybe 3 PTA points, and shuffle off to Redbox's with a threatical total of $105M. It'll cost you $21 in March-May BO Leagues, and come on, you know you don't have any room for this tripe in a season where summer films come into play. Maybe you can squeeze it into your Feb-April League, but even that seems unadvisable at best, downright crazy at worst.
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Miracles From Heaven (Sony) - Another week, another cheap ploy to trick God-fearin' Christian families into theaters. Sony, home of these ploys, will release the Jennifer Garner-starring Miracles From Heaven into over 3,000 theaters, which makes it the widest Christian release since Son of God (guess which studio released that shit?). The film's about a little girl who falls out of a tree, and then her parents pray about it for awhile while she's in the hospital, and when the kid survives, OMG IT'S A MIRACLE PRAISE JESUS. Or something like that. It was released on Wednesday and it's already gotten an A Cinemascore, meaning audiences are eating it up.
I can't continue to reiterate the short lived history of mainstream Christian films every week. It's real good when the movie's accessible, like God's Not Dead or Heaven Is For Real, and even when the movie's a bit on the "No thank you" side, it's still pretty decent. Miracles From Heaven is as close to Heaven Is For Real as we're gonna get, and that performed really well in 2014, opening to a $22M 3 day OW and a total of $91. While Miracles From Heaven may not reach those proportions - mainly because the genre has been seriously diluted since then - it still has a serious chance of being the best performer since that 2014 God Movie Boom.
The Prediction - Miracles From Heaven is probably your last chance in your Jan-March League to make up some ground, and it's your best bet since you probably can't afford Batman Vs Superman at this point. It will open to a $20M 3-day, wrapping up 7 Top 5 points, a few PTA points at best, and totaling out at $68M. It'll run you $11 in March-May Leagues, and will be a better bet than My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 at the same price, but you'd really be better off with the opening weekend of Alice Through The Looking Glass, honestly. Make your decision, but make it quick. It's already Thursday night, bro.
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The Bronze (Sony Classics) - The Bronze is surprisingly opening wide this weekend from Sony Classic Pictures. They're inexplicably pushing the low-interest R-rated washed-up gymnast comedy (?) into over 1,000 theaters this weekend, which seems like a grave mistake. The Bronze was originally scheduled for a limited release back in October but got pushed to this weekend, and recently was made into a wide release. It stars The Big Bang Theory star Melissa Rauch as Hope, a former gymnast Olympic medalist (guess which place she came in?) who rides her mid-level fame to coast in her small-town Ohio life. She's sought out by a new young gymnast for coaching help and probably realizes her life sucks and to be a better person. Or something like that. It also stars Gary Cole, Silicon Valley's Thomas Middleditch, SNL's Cecily Strong, and Bucky himself, Sebastian Stan.
I don't know why Sony Classics decided to make this a wide release at the last minute. They have put little effort towards a marketing campaign and the film has no real star power, and even less wide appeal - with their foul-mouthed star who comes into her own over the course of a film. I'm sure they're aiming for a Bad Teacher feel, but they don't have Cameron Diaz or Justin Timberlake, and Bad Teacher had a sizable marketing hook of Cameron Diaz going full rated R for the first time. That was enough to propel that mediocre film to $100M during the summer, but if Sony thinks they've got something similar here, the studio's in for quite a surprise. No stars, no marketing, no real hook - nope nope nope.
The Prediction - The Bronze ain't Bad Teacher or Bad Santa, no matter how hard it tries to be. It should open to only $2M at best, no Top 5 points, no PTA points, and a box office total of only $5M, best case scenario. It's cheap, mostly because we all thought it'd be a limited release, so it may be worth it on a pure box office dollars per price dollars stand, but whatever - it probably won't win you any leagues or anything.
This week's limited releases...
Midnight Special (WB) - Midnight Special is a sci-fi thriller starring arthouse favorite Michael Shannon, and it's being released in only 5 theaters this weekend. It should easily nab all 5 PTA points this weekend, and should bring in 2-3 for the next few weekends. You probably all have it on your Ultimate Leagues so I'm not gonna waste my time - I'm almost positive all of us are all in here. $5 in the March-May Leagues, and I'm sure it'll grab 10 PTA points at least. It's about a kid with glow-y eyes, so I'm assuming it's a an unofficial sequel to Looper or something?
Krisha (A24) - Krisha is from a first-time director and starring a bunch of first-time actors. It may nab 1-2 PTA points, probably just off the strength of A24's name behind it. It's got a 96% on RT so some arthouse people may take a flier on it if they've already checked out Hello, My Name Is Doris and Remember and Midnight Special. At 2 theaters, it's good for 3-4 PTA points - which is a boon given its $3 price point.
The Predictions For The Weekend of March 18th-20th:
1. The Divergent Series: Allegiant - $36M
2. Zootopia - $31M
3. Miracles From Heaven - $20M
4. 10 Cloverfield Lane - $13M
5. Deadpool - $6M
PTA: Midnight Special, Eye In The Sky, Allegiant, Krisha, Hello, My Name Is Doris
Next week gives us the biggest showdown this side of Ali/Foreman with Batman Vs Superman, as well as the most anticipated sequel of the year - My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. In limited release, we'll have the Hank Williams biopic in I Saw The Light.
This Week In Box Office History...
2009 - Remember when Nic Cage still had movies in wide release at the theaters? He managed to open Knowing, his end-of-the-world\aliens thriller, to 1st place back then, with an OW of $24M. That was good enough to beat the two other wide openers - I Love You, Man (2nd place with $19M) and the Julia Roberts/Clive Owen movie Duplicity (3rd place with $13.9M). Knowing, with its total of $79M, is the highest grossing non-National Treasure Nic Cage movie since the original Ghost Rider film. I really can't speak less of his acting choices since then, however - I'd appreciate a Knowing sequel right about now, actually.
