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Box Office Stalls at Home While Avengers Dominates Overseas

Source: Box Office Mojo , Edward Douglas

April 29, 2012

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

After months and months of movies overperforming, the domestic box office took a major hit as four new movies were released with only one of them cracking the Top 3, something that we haven't seen in quite some time. It was also the first time since January that no single movie brought in more than $20 million.

Meanwhile, Marvel's The Avengers was released overseas into 39 territories (roughly 70% of its international run), and has brought in $185.1 million since opening on Wednesday. It opened at #1 in every single one of those territories while setting opening weekend records in many South and Central American countries where it opened. Some of the individual numbers include $25.5 million from the UK, $19.8 million from Australia, $16.9 million from Mexico, $13.9 million from France and $13 million from Korea. The movie opened in 94 IMAX locations worldwide, pulling in $5.6 million (the highest gross for a Marvel IMAX title internationally), averaging $59,256 per location.

By comparison, Peter Berg's Battleship, which also has yet to be released in North America, has grossed $170 million internationally after two-and-a-half weeks of release compared to Avengers making more than that in just five days.

Back in North America, Screen Gems' ensemble comedy Think Like a Man, based on Steve Harvey's bestselling book, remained on top with $18 million in its second weekend, down just 46% from its impressive debut last week. It has grossed nearly $61 million in ten days.

Taking a surprising second place based on estimates is Aardman's stop-motion animated The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Sony), which opened in the most theaters among the new movies, over 3,350 theaters, which helped it do the strongest business among the new movies, bringing in an estimated $11.4 million to take third place. Like with so many other movies, Pirates! opened internationally before its American release and its debut in North America and a couple other countries this weekend brings its global gross to $75.1 million.

Based on the early estimates, the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Lucky One (Warner Bros.) starring Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling, drops to third place with $11.3 milllion, down 50% in its second weekend. It has grossed just south of $40 million in ten days.

The biggest movie of 2012 so far, Gary Ross' adaptation of The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) added another $11.2 million for a very tight fourth place, although we could see positions two through five rearranged once we get actuals on Monday. Either way, it's grossed $372 million domestically in five weeks, which makes it the 18th highest-grossing movie of all time. It should end up somewhere in the Top 13 by next month even if the North American release of The Avengers takes some of the wind out of its sails.

Expected by many to give Think Like a Man a run for #1, Nicholas Stoller's relationship comedy The Five-Year Engagement (Universal), starring Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, opened with a somewhat disappointing $11.1 million for fifth place despite having the highest per-theater average of the four new movies.

It was followed by two genre movies geared mainly towards guys, both opening in roughly 2,300 theaters. Jason Statham's action-thriller Safe (Lionsgate) was able to come out on top, taking sixth place with $7.7 million over the John Cusack-starring Edgar Allan Poe horror-thriller The Raven (Relativity Media), which opened in seventh place with $7.2 million.

Disneynature's Chimpanzee took eight place with $5.5 million, down 49% from its opening Earth Day weekend, having grossed $19.2 million to date.

Ninth and tenth place went to Twentieth Century Fox's The Three Stooges and Lionsgate's The Cabin in the Woods with $5.4 and $4.5 million, respectively. They've both grossed in the $35 million range since opening three weeks ago with Three Stooges still slightly ahead.

Opening in just three theaters, director Richard Linklater's reunion with his School of Rock star Jack Black for the true-life crime-comedy Bernie (Millennium Entertainment) brought in roughly $90 thousand, a terrific $30 thousand per location. By comparison, Zal Batmanglij's intriguing festival favorite drama Sound of My Voice (Fox Searchlight), starring Brit Marling, Christopher Denham and Nicole Vicius, only grossed $40 thousand in five locations.

Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.

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