I’m not sure what a “B” CinemaScore means when it comes to an R-rated comedy. Considering it didn’t show any signs of slowing after a whopping $19.6 million, I’d say it doesn’t mean much as Neighbors rocked the box office with $51 million, more than $11 million over its tracking, not to mention another $34.4 million coming in from overseas.
For comparison, in 2012 Ted opened with $54.4 million in June and went on to make over $218 million domestically. I don’t see those kinds of legs for this one as Neighbors is a little more of a straight-forward comedy, but given the $18 million production budget this is a very impressive result. Perhaps the CinemaScore will show its effect next weekend. One thing going for it is it was driven by a 53% female audience, pretty good for a movie targeting men and perhaps that helps explain that CinemaScore a little more.
When it comes to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 it has crossed $400 million internationally, but domestically it fell 59% to $37 million this weekend. Not exactly the best news for Sony, Captain America: The Winter Soldier fell 56.6% in its second weekend, though it also opened a little higher than Spider-Man 2. No matter what, this film is still going to be successful, but Sony is going to have to take a long hard look at what they are doing with this franchise if they want to beef up momentum for their expanded, Spider-Man universe.
It wasn’t an entirely happy Mother’s Day for Moms’ Night Out, which can hang their hat on the fact it was only released in 1,044 theaters, but $4.2 million is still shy of that $5.2 million tracking number.
It was a sad three days for Clarius Entertainment as their first film, Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, which opened in 2,575 theaters, brought in an estimated $3.7 million for a $1,439 per theater average. That’s bad enough to be the seventh worst opening all time for a film in 2,500 theaters or more. On the bright side, those that did go see it gave it an “A” CinemaScore, so… hang your hat on something Clarius… at least until someone brings up what is said to be the film’s $70 million budget. Ouch!
Opening in only four theaters in New York and LA, Gia Coppola‘s Palo Alto is projected to gross $80,640 for a per screen average of $20,160.
In even better news, Jon Favreau‘s Chef brought in an estimated $204,000 from only six theaters for a $34,034 per theater average. Seek it out when you can, here’s my review.
Finally, Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel is now his top grossing domestic release ever, surpassing The Royal Tenenbaums with $52.7 million and it won’t be stopping there.
Next weekend sees the release of Godzilla and Million Dollar Arm and I’m sure Warner Bros. is loving the large Spider-Man 2 drop as that makes room for an audience hungry for another blockbuster and I expect Million Dollar Arm to do well with the families as it is a film that will sell well and won’t disappoint its target audience.
Oh, and as for the challenge Laremy offered up in send me an email and Laremy will get in touch.
Now here’s the top ten for this weekend…
