Tough weekend for the newcomers as Lee Daniels’ The Butler scores a second weekend at #1 with an impressive $17 million, dropping only 31% from its opening weekend and well on its way to a $100+ million finish and enough love to keep the Oscar chatter alive and well. Meanwhile, the only newcomer to have much of a showing is Edgar Wright‘s The World’s End, even though it was barely topped by The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
The Mortal Instruments hit theaters on Wednesday and only managed $4.7 million after its first two days in theaters and things didn’t improve over the weekend for the franchise hopeful. The three day total was only $9.3 million for the young adult adaptation and I have a hard time believing Screen Gems is still going to push forward with that supposed sequel, The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes, after a critical savaging and a supremely disappointing opening. I guess it could find traction overseas and make a sequel worth it, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Just behind Mortal Instruments and in 1,569 fewer theaters, the third film in the Cornetto Trilogy, The World’s End scored the most impressive opening for any of the three films in the franchise, bringing in $8.9 million from 1,549 theaters ($5,745 per), accompanied by a “B+” CinemaScore. The fact it’s the largest opening makes sense considering it was in almost double the theaters Hot Fuzz opened in back in 2007 when it brought home $5.8 million and more than double the theaters Shaun of the Dead opened in back in 2004 when it debuted with $3.3 million. With a miniscule $20 million budget the film will be profitable soon as it came into the weekend with nearly $15 million from overseas territories before even playing in a U.S. theater.
The final newcomer to open wide this weekend was the well-reviewed horror You’re Next, which wasn’t able to match critical excitement opening with only $7 million and only earning a “B-” CinemaScore from opening night audiences. The film started slow on Thursday night and that continued throughout the weekend. It makes me wonder if the biggest issue with this one was that many of the good reviews were written two years ago after the film premiered at the Toronto and Fantastic Fest festivals and there just wasn’t enough current buzz to give it a lift.
Finally, on its way to being the highest grossing indie film of the summer, Woody Allen‘s Blue Jasmine expanded to 1,283 theaters this weekend and brought in $4.3 million, bringing its total up to $14.7 million. The two biggest indies of the year by my count are Mud ($21.5m) and The Place Beyond the Pines ($21.4m) with The Way, Way Back being the highest grossing indie of the summer so far with $18.2 million. Maybe I’m forgetting something and if so, let me know, but I think another $4 million is easily doable for Allen’s Oscar reel for Cate Blanchett.
In other news, tying Blue Jasmine and barely making the top ten is last week’s new opener Kick-Ass 2, which dropped 68% and ended its second frame with $4.3 million. Ouch!
Next week sees the Wednesday release of Closed Circuit followed by Getaway and One Direction: This is Us. Any predictions on what comes out on top? Is One Direction enough to hold off Selena Gomez riding around town with Ethan Hawke?
