Think Like a Man Too didn’t exactly blow the doors off on its opening weekend, ultimately bringing in just $30 million, which is $3.6 million less than the original made only two years ago. In fact, if we’re looking at anything domestically other than 22 Jump Street, you may as well just say the movies have died and we’ll all move on. Hell, with its $29 million second weekend, 22 Jump Street might be #1 once actuals come in.
For Clint Eastwood‘s Jersey Boys, no one was expecting very big things, and the $40 million budgeted Broadway adaptation delivered on those low expectations, opening to the tune (get it?) of just $13.5 million. Of those that saw it opening day, they gave it an ‘A-” CinemaScore, likely before they picked up the $4.99 early bird special, watched Brian Williams and went to bed with a warm glass of milk, but hey, they went to bed happy.
One interesting stat I read on Twitter is this is Eastwood’s largest opening weekend for a film directed by, but not starring, Clint Eastwood. Can you name the largest opening for a Clint Eastwood film in which Eastwood both starred in and directed? Here’s a hint, it’s also the largest opening for a film Eastwood has ever starred in, directed or not.
Looking into the holdovers, How to Train Your Dragon 2 simply isn’t doing it for audiences, the kids flick dropped 49% in its second weekend, bringing in $25.3 million for a cume now around $95 million. What gives? Once actuals come in that will likely be more than a 50% drop, almost unheard of for a well-received animated family film, especially one that didn’t exactly look to be too front-loaded on opening weekend.
Well, I guess people will just have to find The Rover on DVD and Blu-ray, or maybe A24 will have to start using quotes from my review in the marketing, because they aren’t attracting attention right now. The film expanded into 599 theaters this weekend and not a soul was around to see it as it brought in just $500,000 for a $835 per theater average. Too bad.
Now, while I’m all doom and gloom in the opening paragraph, next weekend brings what might be our first $100 million opener of the year, Transformers: Age of Extinction, with a weekend virtually all to itself unless you count the limited opening of Snowpiercer. Previous Transformers openings go like this:
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) – $108.9 million
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) – $97.8 million
- Transformers (2007) – $70.5 million
With Age of Extinction, they are pushing the IMAX 3D hard with Michael Bay recently writing on his blog, saying “60 percent of the movie opens up and fills the whole IMAX screen” and that it was shot using “the new IMAX digital 3D camera.” I have to be honest, even that has me curious to check the damn thing out in legit IMAX. Anyone want to place an early prediction on how it will open?
