While last night’s on Twitter, American Sniper (or the Unexpected Results when the Rest of the Country Goes to the Movies).
Coming in second is the Jennifer Lopez-led thriller The Boy Next Door with an impressive $15 million. I say impressive because I only found out this morning this thing was made for a mere $4 million. Perhaps even more impressive is the CinemaScore at “B-“. Typically I would say that’s not all that great, but given how bad the movie is that’s like an “A+”.
Also opening this weekend, and serving as the year’s second massive flop after Blackhat (which only made $1.6 million this weekend), is the Johnny Depp comedy Mortdecai, which carried a budget of $60 million and scored a limp $4.12 million in its opening weekend. CinemaScore audiences weren’t too pleased with this one either, giving it a “C+”.
And then we come to Strange Magic, which was sold as a film co-written by George Lucas, but it seems that name doesn’t really care much weight with families as it fizzled to a $5.5 million opening. Hey, at least it beat Mortdecai in money and even CinemaScore, landing a “B-” of its own.
Next weekend brings the Super Bowl, but for folks looking for new movie releases you’ll have two new wide releases to choose from in Project Almanac and The Loft along with the expanding release of Black or White. I haven’t received a screening invite to any of the new wide releases, but I will be seeing the Jude Law submarine feature Black Sea, which opened in five theaters this weekend to the tune of $35,000. Not much, and reviews haven’t been soaring, but I’m interested in checking it out.
