1. Hotel Transylvania - $43M - $43M
2. Looper - $21.2M - $21.2M
3. End of Watch - $8M - $26.2M
4. Trouble with the Curve - $7.3M - $23.7M
5. House at the End of the Street - $7.1M - $22.2M
6. Pitch Perfect - $5.2M - $5.2M
7. Finding Nemo 3D - $4M - $4M
8. Resident Evil: Retribution - $3M - $38.7M
9. The Master - $2.74M - $9.6M
10. Won't Back Down - $2.7M - $2.7M
After the photo finish last frame, things looked to be a bit more clear
cut this week, with three new wide releases vying for attention. The
family market gets another spooky entry in the guise of Hotel
Transylvania while time travel flick Looper was hoping there was still
an audience willing to take a chance on a complex, genre bending
thriller. There was space for drama too, in the form of Won't Back Down.
All three would be up against End of Watch, which finished up on top
last weekend. However a limited release would make more than a few
headlines.
The family film Hotel Transylvania marks the feature directorial debut
for Dexter's Laboratory/Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky. Even
monsters need a holiday, is the concept behind the film. Count Dracula
has run the titular five star hotel for many a year, and decides to
invite some of its most famous guests (Frankenstein's monster, a
Werewolf husband and wife, Quasimodo and many others) back for his
daughter, Mavis' 118th birthday. The Count is proud of the fact that the
resort has been human-free since 1898 but has to think fast when
Jonathan, a young traveller stumbles into the place. Can Dracula keep
Jonathan from discovering the secrets of Hotel Transylvania and protect
Mavis from falling in love with this perfectly regular human? Adam
Sandler provides the voice of Count Dracula, while his 'That's My Boy'
co-star, Adam Samberg plays Jonathan. Both are ably supported by Kevin
James, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon and singer Cee Lo Green, as an obese
Egyptian mummy. Miley Cyrus was originally announced as the voice of
Mavis back in November 2011, but left the film to focus on other
projects, to be replaced by Selena Gomez. The feature has been a long
time coming, having been announced back in 2006, with David Feiss and
Anthony Stacchi attached to direct. However, by 2008, they'd been
replaced by Jill Culton, director of Open Season. She in turn left in
2010, with effects animator (and lately producer) Chris Jenkins stepping
in to helm, with Todd Wilderman acting as co-director (or sole
director, depending on which report you read).
Tartakovsky was announced as the new director in February 2011 and set
to work re-writing and re-imagining the film. Having worked fruitlessly
on the project for a number of years, the crew of Hotel Transylvania
took some winning over, but were eventually sold on the Russian-American
animator's vision, and things finally began to move forward.
Directorial and cast changes weren't the only alteration the film has
seen - in the original version of the script, the hotel was actually a
safe haven for the classic monsters who found themselves irrelevant in a
21st century world, and a long lost relative of Van Helsing is the one
who ends up falling for Mavis. With such a long pre-production period,
Hotel Transylvania has seen its budget continue to rise, and while Sony
insist costs currently run to $85M, they may in actual fact be much
higher (Tangled's long gestating production period saw its budget pushed
beyond $250M). While the film had the family market pretty much to
itself this weekend (ParaNorman is all but done at this point), Sony
know it only had seven days before facing Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.
While critics weren't sold on the film (it's currently on 41% at Rotten
Tomatoes but scored a B+ Cinemascore), the public were more than happy
to turn out to hear Sandler, Gomez and Co. On Friday, Hotel Transylvania
scored a solid $11M, comfortably winning the weekend there and then.
That figure compares favourable to the 2009 release, Cloudy with a
Chance of Meatballs, which debuted with $8.1M. As expected, matinee
performances on Saturday and Sunday gave the flick a considerable boost,
allowing it to finish up with a very impressive three day total of
$43M. Not only is that a new record for a Sony Animation release but it
is also the best September opening of all time, smashing the previous
record ($35.6M) held by Sweet Home Alabama since 2002. Furthermore, the
film is also the second best opening of Adam Sandler's career, beaten
only by The Longest Yard ($47M). Given the potted production history and
average critical response, this must surely go down as a major victory
for the studio, and while it'll face direct competition next frame,
Hotel Transylvania could be some way beyond $55M before Frankenweenie
arrives.
Sony's second release this frame is Looper, a new science-fiction
feature from Brick director, Rian Johnson which stars Joseph
Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. Levitt plays Joseph
Simmons, a 'looper' who works for the mob. A very well paid assassin,
it's his job to kill people sent back from the future, where time travel
has been perfected, but outlawed and consequently taken over by the
mob. 'Loopers' only operate on one rule - never let your target escape.
Major problems arise when Simmons comes face to face with his next hit
and discovers it is a future version of himself (Played by Willis). In
the confusion, the older version escapes, leaving a young Simmons in a
race against time to put things right before the mob step in - all the
while knowing that if he succeeds, he will become his own
murderer. Johnson began developing Looper once production on his
previous film, The Brothers Bloom was completed in 2008, with a view to
start work some time in 2009. While things didn't come together as
quickly as anticipated, by May 2010 he had script, budget and had cast
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead role, the two having previously worked
together on 2005's Brick. Willis would join the picture later that same
month, with Blunt added to the cast in October. Shooting on the $30M
Looper got underway in January 2011 (after a short delay while Levitt
worked on Premium Rush) taking in Louisiana and Shanghai amongst its
locations.
The central idea of time travel can be a difficult concept to pull off
successfully - more so if one wants to avoid the usual pitfalls and
paradoxes associated with it. Initially it looked as if the director had
gotten support on this aspect from Shane Carruth, who handled multiple
time-lines in his debut movie, Primer, but this was later played down.
In fact, during a recent Q&A for the film, Johnson mentioned Carruth
had offered advice on the script (which they ultimately had to
disregard) and helped them shoot a sequence that ended up not making it
into the picture. The first trailer for the film debuted in April 2012,
alongside the now de-rigueur viral campaign. This was followed up with
further footage, trailers and featurettes. Film District and Tri-Star
set Looper for release in September 2012, but in an interesting move,
DMG Entertainment, who are responsible for the picture's release in
China, requested a longer cut, reinstating some sequences Johnson had
shot in Shanghai but removed due to pacing issues. Early word on the
picture had been incredibly strong, with very favourable comparisons to
Children of Men, 12 Monkeys and Moon. By Thursday night, Looper was
sitting on an impressive 92% at Rotten Tomatoes. It's not often a studio
gets a one-two placing but Sony managed to achieve it this weekend as
Looper landed comfortably in second place, with a good $7M Friday haul.
That figure is better than the entire combined gross of Brick and The
Brothers Bloom, so even if Looper had closed the same day it opened, it
would still be Johnson's most successful film. Given its potentially
complex subject matter, there was always the chance audiences would give
the picture a wide berth, despite a strong marketing campaign, but that
opening day figure certainly tells a different story. The Willis/Levitt
feature kept the rest of the top ten at bay throughout the remainder of
the weekend, finishing up with a three day total of $21.2M. Excluding
cameos (The Expendables series) and Red, this marks Willis' best opening
since 2007's Live Free or Die Hard and the best of Levitt's career, at
least as a main player. Looper also did sterling business abroad,
especially in China, where its debut looks set to outgross its US
counterpart. If that does happen (confirmation won't come until after a
public holiday), it would mark the first time in cinematic history that
China would be the world’s leading market for an international film. By
the time Taken 2 arrives next weekend, Looper will have all but covered
its production budget (if not completely covered it) and give us a
clearer picture as where it is heading.
End of Watch kept everyone guessing last weekend, tying with House at
the End of the Street when estimates were issued on Sunday. By Monday,
with actual figures released, Watch held on to the top spot, and would
continue to do so throughout the week, its best day being Tuesday, when
it made $1.4M. With its budget already covered during its first three
days, the film had little to worry about this weekend, and was operating
on some incredibly strong word of mouth. On its second Friday the Jake
Gyllenhall flick made $2.4M, down around 48% on the same time last
weekend - obviously the film taking a hit from Looper. Over Saturday and
into Sunday, the cop docu-drama added another $5.6M, to bring its
weekend total to $8M. At this point, ten days into its run, End of Watch
has made $26.2M, and could finish up with around $45M - covering its
$7M production costs a number of times over.
Having had to settle for third last weekend, the Clint Eastwood/Amy
Adams drama, Trouble With The Curve moved into second place on Monday.
By Thursday it had an average weekday take of $1M, and began its second
week with an overall total of $16.1M. A Friday haul of $2.3M saw Curve
drop down to fifth place (down 45% on its opening day). Playing to a
slightly older demographic may well have offered the film a little
respite from the competition (both old and new) and allowed Trouble With
The Curve to finish up Sunday night with a $7.3M weekend total ($23.7M
overall). With three wide releases next weekend, the picture should see
at least one more showing in the top ten, but won't finish up as one of
Eastwood's bigger acting hits (his best being Gran Torino's $129M).
Clashing with End of Watch last weekend, The House at the End of the
Street managed an ok $12.2M total when all the differences had been
settled - though one could say it went some way to show how much
Relativity had inflated estimates in an attempt to grab weekend
headlines ($800K separated the estimated and the actual figure). With
poor word of mouth taking hold as early as Sunday, the Jennifer Lawrence
starrer was in for a bumpy week ahead, making just $611K on Monday and
$588K on Thursday. So it was something of a surprise when the film
didn't completely collapse on its second Friday as many predicted,
making $2.33M, a not-bad drop of 50% on its opening day figure (and not
dissimilar to the 52% second Friday drop seen by recent release, The
Possession). By Sunday, House at the End of the Street had a weekend
total of $7.1M (a decent hold of 41% on last weekend as a whole), for a
cumulative gross of $22.2M. The film was made in 2010 before Lawrence
became a global star and was produced for $10M, which looks to be
shaping into a wise investment for the studio.
Out to just over 330 locations this weekend is the musical comedy Pitch
Perfect, starring Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow and Rebel Wilson.
Kendrick plays Beca, a freshman who is talked into joining the
university's A Cappella group, The Bellas. Despite initially resenting
the idea, she's soon working to convince the group that they need to
update their songs if they're going to take on and beat a rival male
group in an upcoming competition. Part Glee and Bring It On, Pitch
Perfect marked the directorial debut for Jason Moore, a Broadway
director who won acclaim for his work on Avenue Q, along with working on
Shrek The Musical and a Steel Magnolias revival. The film actually
started life as a book by former GQ editor, Mickey Rapkin, and was
adapted for the screen by Kay Cannon. The first trailer debuted in June,
with Universal opting to release the film at the end of September -
limited at first, with expansion a week later. Reviews were well above
average, with 72% of critics finding something they liked about the
picture. The studio also launched their largest ever word-of-mouth/free
ticket screening program to raise awareness for the film earlier in the
month - the success of which prompted the limited roll out a week ahead
of the originally announced date. Still, even with positive critical
(and non-critic) opinion, most weren't expecting Pitch Perfect to
trouble the top ten, at least not this weekend with such a limited
screen count. Opinion changed rapidly on Friday when the film weighed in
with a stunning $1.75M - good enough to crack the top ten and land in
sixth place, putting the likes of Won't Back Down (2,515 screen roll
out) to shame in the process. The musical-comedy held steady over the
remainder of the weekend, finishing up with an equally impressive three
day take of $5.2M (the best theatre to tickets sold average of the
entire top ten). Had the weekend been a little quieter, the film may
well have finished top five. With such an amazing start, tied to some
equally strong word of mouth, expect Pitch Perfect to hit the ground
running next weekend when it expands into over 2,500 theatres.
With Hotel Transylvania entering the fray, Finding Nemo dropped 58% this
weekend, making $4M in the process. The Pixar 3D re-release may not
have performed as well as The Lion King re-release in September 2011 but
has comfortably covered its conversion costs and will make its real
money on the home market. Finding Nemo 3D has made $36.4M during its
three weeks on general release.
Resident Evil: Retribution dropped 700 or so screens this weekend, and
only just managed to hang onto a top ten position. With $3M over the
last three days the fifth Resident Evil picture has a North American
total of $38.7M and is still yet to surpass the $40M finish of the
original film, made ten years ago. At present rate, it will finish as
the fourth most successful of the series domestically, some way short of
the $60M total of Resident Evil: Afterlife. Internationally things are
still going very well, though whether it can top the $236M total of the
previous film, remains to be seen.
After a record breaking debut, The Master made $4.3M when it expanded
last weekend. The general public were certainly interested in Paul
Thomas Anderson's movie about a man forming a new religious movement but
perhaps not to the degree hoped for by the studio. With only minor
expansion this frame and the curiosity factor starting to wane, the
picture made $787K on Friday, down 44% on the same day last week, when
it had expanded into 788 locations. For the weekend as a whole, The
Master made $2.7M, bringing its 17 day total to $9.6M. While it should
continue to play quite well even after dropping out of the top ten, some
have speculated that releasing the picture this early may leave it
forgotten during awards season. Next up for Anderson is an adaptation of
Thomas Pynchon's novel, Inherent Vice.
The final wide release this weekend is the true-life drama, Won't Back
Down, which stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis. The story follows
Jamie (Gyllenhaal) and Nona (Davis) as they attempt to transform a local
school which they feel is failing their children. The film is partly
inspired by/based around the introduction of the 2010 Parent Trigger
Law, which allows a parent to enforce changes in a public school if
petitioned. Should the petition be successful, parents can push for
staff dismissal, or even a conversion to a charter school (Which would
see it receive public money). The film was written by Brim Hill and
Daniel Barnz, who also directed, this being his follow up to 2011's
Beastly, a Beauty and the Beast re-imagining. Along with the
aforementioned stars, Won't Back Down also features Ving Rhames and
Holly Hunter, who returns to film after a seven year hiatus.
Interestingly, Walden Media, who produced the drama also funded
documentary Waiting For "Superman", which dealt with failures in the
American education system. Won't Back Down began life as Still I Rise,
before getting a title change to Learning to Fly, then Steel Town and
finally, the title it now carries. Of the three wide releases this
weekend, this was the one out to the least number of locations, and it
stumbled before it even got into theatres thanks to a number of negative
reviews that left it with a 35% Rotten rating. On Friday it made just
$921K and couldn't even hold a candle to Pitch Perfect, which as we've
already seen was out to 2,180 less theatres. By Sunday, Won't Back Down
had made just $2.7M and was all but confirmed as a failure. Even with a
modest budget of $19M, the movie is going to struggle to see even half
of that figure domestically, and may yet have a tough time surpassing
the $6M made by Waiting for "Superman".
Despite strong reviews and white-hot word of mouth, Dredd 3D stumbled
out of the gate last weekend, making $6.2M and becoming one of the
poorest performing comic book adaptations in recent times. While it gave
House at the End of the Street a bit of a fight during the week, it was
sitting on a disappointing $8.5M at the start of its second frame. A
$676K Friday led to a weekend of just $2.2M, the film lost its top ten
place in the process. At this point Dredd is unlikely to see $18M in
North America, but may yet be saved by its overseas performance, which
currently stands at around $10M, $6M of which was from the UK.
Still in limited release The Perks of a Wallflower made a stunning
$1.1M this weekend from only 102 locations. That's a strong follow up to
the $228K it made last frame and all but assures further expansion.
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