The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water should finally end American Sniper‘s streak as parents feel guilty about taking all last weekend for the Super Bowl. $25.5 million is my call, and it couldn’t have cost much, could it have? It looks like doing a mountain of cocaine, so hopefully no parents will have an epileptic shock this weekend.
Jupiter Ascending has the benefit of a large marketing budget, but that’s probably because the production budget was also massive. To me this looks like a straight international play, as long as Warner Bros. owns those rights they might end up slightly in the black. $22 million is where I come down, which should equal only $60 million domestic, meaning they will need something like $400 million overseas to feel good. Now that I look at that number again I’ve got to say, “gulp”. Guardians of the Galaxy put up that sort of number, but it had great reviews and huge Marvel might behind it.
Where do I even start with Seventh Son? Total disaster. Not so much unpleasant to watch as it was mind-numbingly boring. Jeff Bridges is completely wasted, and there’s really no reason for anyone to see this, ever. But people will! It will putter along on Friday and Saturday, probably hitting $10 million, and then die come Sunday. It will not be missed, and it will be fascinating to see the budget here. I can’t imagine how they’re going to escape a loss.
Finally, our old reliable, American Sniper. Off a sub-$60 million budget it has made over $300 million in box office, leaving a tidy profit well north of $100+ million. This is Clint Eastwood’s biggest financial earner ever, at the tender age of 84, although I didn’t adjust for inflation. I put it at $23 million, which means it will be right there for that fourth title.
That’s all for my thoughts on the box office weekend, it looks like a slow weekend overall, but hopefully we’ll see a bounce-back and some excitement with Jupiter Ascending next time around. Your turn!
SIDE NOTE: Some of the theater numbers below are estimates. We’ll have the actual counts in Sunday’s wrap-up article.
