1. The Possession - $17.7M - $17.7M
2. Lawless - $9.7M - $11.8M
3. The Expendables 2 - $8.8M - $66.1M
4. The Bourne Legacy - $7.2M - $96.1M
5. ParaNorman - $6.5M - $38M
6. The Odd Life of Timothy Green - $6M - $35.9M
7. The Dark Knight Rises - $5.8M - $431.1M
8. The Campaign - $5.4M - $73M
9. 2016: Obama's America - $5.1M - $18.2M
10. Hope Springs - $4.7M - $52M
(18. The Oogilives In The Big Balloon Adventure - $448K - $673K)
It's another mixed bag at the cinema this weekend, with serious drama
and horror tussling with a brand new family film. Even with Monday being
a holiday in the US, this frame was expected to be as equally poor as
the last one in terms of box office takings. As we'll see, at least one
of the new films became a record breaker - but for the wrong reasons.
Next weekend brings us just one wide opening release, the Bradley Cooper
flick, The Words, while further ahead we have the fifth Resident Evil
film and the Finding Nemo 3D re-release.
The second widest release this weekend is the Sam Raimi produced, The
Possession. It stars Jeffery Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick as a divorced
couple whose daughter, Em, becomes obsessed with opening a
Hebrew-inscribed box she bought at a garage sale. When her behaviour
becomes erratic, the parents blame it on the recent trauma of their
divorce. However, things quickly escalate, leaving them forced to
scramble for an explanation and a solution, scientific or supernatural,
for whatever is attempting to destroy their daughter before its too
late. Raimi acts as producer, via his Ghost House Pictures company, with
Ole Bornedal directing. Bornedal shot to fame with the 1994 Danish
film, Nightwatch (he also directed the 1997 English-language remake) and
won acclaim with I Am Dina in 2002. The producer and director are no
strangers, Raimi having acted as distributor on Bornedal's 2007
comedy/horror flick, Vikaren (aka The Substitute) via his Ghost Pictures
subsidiary, Underground. The director was drawn to The Possession from
the initial script, seeing it as an allegory for divorce, rather than a
straight scare flick. The core device in the film, the Dibbuk box, is
actually based on a real life item, said to be haunted by a spirit from
Jewish folklore. The box first featured in a story by Kevin Mannis, who
came across the item in 2001. When he tracked down the daughter of the
original owner, she refused to take it back. The box has passed through a
number of owners since, who have reported tales of terrible bad luck
and it is said to have been indirectly responsible for two deaths. Many
people have since contacted Mannis and current box owner Jason Haxton,
detailing ways in which it has affected their lives, for the worse.
However, noted psychologist Christopher French has stated that if people
already knew of the Dibbuk box's legend, it is easy to blame any
misfortune on it.
Kyra Sedgwick was amongst the first to join the film, with Jeffrey Dean
Morgan compelled to sign after seeing her audition tape. As Em, Bornedal
cast Natasha Calis, a young actress who made her screen debut aged just
seven. With a $14M budget attached, shooting took place early 2011, in
British Columbia. With filming and post-production out of the way, the
picture sat on the shelf for close to a year, not receiving a trailer
until May 2012. While The Possession had a bigger marketing campaign and
a much wider roll out than The Apparition (released last weekend), the
similarities in theme are there. Reviews were certainly strong than the
aforementioned scare flick, with The Possession scoring 36% at Rotten
Tomatoes at the time of writing (The Apparition scored 0% approval).
With Lawless opening Wednesday, the new kid on the block had some
breathing room, allowing it to easily secure the top spot on Friday with
$6M. That was a decent enough start given the time of the year, the
genre and the reviews. It also meant that forgoing an incredible boost
for any other release, The Possession had won the weekend there and
then. Over the remainder of the frame the Sam Raimi production added
$11.7M, to bring its three day total to a solid $17.7M (with a
potentially decent Monday given that it's public holiday). In terms of
August horror releases, the Possession has opened much stronger than
2011's Apollo 18 ($8.7M) but weaker than The Final Destination ($27M) in
2009 and 2010's The Last Exorcism ($20M), though the former was a
sequel in a well established franchise. Given that the movie has already
recouped its production budget, Lionsgate will have few concerns to
what happens to it from here on out.
Lawless is based on the Matt Bondurant book, The Wettest County in the
World, a prohibition set story dealing with Bondurant's great
grandfather and uncles who ran a moonshine business in Virginia. Work on
a film adaptation began a number of years ago, with musician Nick Cave
writing the screenplay for director John Hillcoat. The duo first worked
together on the 1988 film, Ghosts of the Civil Dead, and would re-team
on the 2005 blood-soaked western, The Proposition. Cave (along with
Warren Ellis) also provided the music for the both of those pictures,
along with Hillcoat's adaptation of The Road and this new film. With a
completed script, the picture moved into pre-production in late 2009,
casting Ryan Gosling, Michael Shannon, Paul Dano, Amy Adams and Scarlett
Johannson as the main players. But, on the eve of shooting, the
production fell apart as a result of funding issues. The project was
then put on hold, with a view to move forward once new finances could be
secured. Indie studio Sony Red Wagon eventually backed the project, but
with so much time having passed, the original leads were no longer
available to return. Instead, Hillcoat cast Shia LeBeouf, Tom Hardy,
Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska, with shooting finally
getting underway more than a year since the collapse of the original
production. The cast wasn't the only thing to change, with the film's
title becoming The Promised Land, then reverting back to The Wettest
County...before finally settling on Lawless in March 2012. The story,
like its source, follows three brothers who run a moonshine business.
With things initially going smoothly, trouble rears its head in the
guise of Guy Pearce's Special Agent Rakes, a man intent on getting a cut
or putting an end to the brothers and their business. The situation is
complicated (and bloodied) further by the boy's employer, the gangster
Floyd Banner (Oldman).
The teaser debuted in March 2012, and was followed by a standard
trailer, featurettes and clips, with a violent red-band trailer arriving
online just last week. Lawless screened at Cannes back in May to mixed
reviews, fairing roughly the same in North America, with 65% of critics
giving the film their approval. The picture certainly had pedigree, both
in front and behind the camera, and there was only limited competition
in current release. However, on the down side, its bloody action may
have put many off. Lawless opened Wednesday to a soft $1.1M, but still
good enough to secure the top spot from The Expendables 2. Thursday saw
a slight dip in takings, with the picture winding up with a $2.1M total
as Friday began (it also lost the top spot to Stallone & Co). With
The Possession in the frame, the picture held on to second place,
clocking up $2.7M. Solid word of mouth, something reflected in its A-
cinemascore helped keep Lawless steady over the rest of the weekend,
finishing up with a three day total of $9.7M ($11.8M since Wednesday).
Overall, an ok start for the violent period picture but one imagines the
Weinstein Company would have been looking for another $3-5M, with a
no.1 finish also being welcome. If the word of mouth stays strong,
there's a chance it will hold better than The Posession, especially with
next weekend's limited competition.
The Expendables 2 gave up the top spot this frame, having reigned for a
fortnight. It began its third frame with $59.5M, scoring an additional
$2.1M on Friday. Over Saturday and Sunday the Stallone-led ensemble
action flick made a further $6.7M to finish its weekend with $8.8M, down
a much better 34% on last frame. That brings its cumulative gross to
$66.1M, in comparison, the original was at $82M by this time in its
release. Lionsgate already know that $100M is out of the question, and
will be looking to the overseas figures to dictate whether we'll be
seeing a third Expendables feature. Initial signs are strong, with the
international gross already surpassing the domestic one, clocking in at
$66.5M as of last Thursday.
The Bourne Legacy is still grasping for $100M and while it will come,
the spin off won't make much more - and will fail to surpass the $121M
made by the original film back in 2002. This weekend the Jeremy Renner
starrer added $7.2M, to bring its 24 day total to $96.1M. Chances are it
will top out at around $110-115M, with $100M possible overseas, where
its current total stands at $43M.
Even though there's fresh family competition this weekend, it had no
impact on ParaNorman. The stop-motion film had an ok drop last frame,
but couldn't compete with the studio's previous picture, Coraline, which
it continues to trail. This week ParaNorman grossed $1.4M on Friday,
for a three day total of $6.5M (down only 24% on last week). At this
point a $50-55M North American finish is on the cards.It's a shame the
picture is getting lost amongst the other August releases as it had some
solid reviews and word of mouth, but as mentioned in previous weeks,
its scary nature may be doing it more harm than good.
The Odd Life of Timothy Green is working on some decent word of mouth
despite only average reviews. This weekend the fantasy drama, which
stars Jennifer Garner, made $6M bringing it nineteen day total to
$35.9M. With a budget of $40M, The Odd Life... might break even before
next weekend and should remain in the top ten for a couple more weeks.
The Dark Knight Rises is now the ninth biggest domestic film of all
time, surpassing The Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's
Chest earlier this week. Its $5.8M take this frame put it within a
stone's throw of E.T's $435M finish and brings its total to $431M.
Abroad, TDKR has pulled well ahead of its domestic haul, making $535M to
date. A total worldwide gross above $1B is certainly achievable.
Comedy The Campaign adds another $5.4M this weekend, dropping down to
eighth. After four weekends on general release the Will Ferrell/Zack
Galifianakis movie has made $73M and should enjoy at least one more
frame in the top ten.
Even if Obama's America faded as the weekend wore on, there was no
denying it got off to an incredible start last Friday (thanks in part to
its expansion). By the end of Sunday, the documentary had made $6.5M
and would continue to play well during the week, rising to second place
on Monday. On its second Friday in wide release (with a further 659
location added to no doubt capitalize on the Republican convention on
Thursday night), it added $1.6M, down around 27% on the same day last
week. Over Saturday and Sunday, unlike last weekend, 2016 held quite
steady, grossing a further $3.5M for a weekend total of $5.1M ($18.2M
overall). Further expansion can't be ruled out and we may yet see the
film in the top ten for a third time.
Hope Springs has managed to keep a corner of the box office all to
itself. Opening to $14.6M, it witnessed subsequent weekend figures of
$9.1M and $5.7M. It covered its production budget during weekend two and
made a further $4.7M over the last three days, to bring its running
total to $52M.
The fact that our final wide opening release doesn't even feature in the
top ten may tell you all you need to know about it. The Oogieloves In
The BIG Balloon Adventure's journey to the screen is a curious one and
emerged from a dispute that producer Kenn Viselman had with Anne Wood,
creator of the Teletubbies. Viselman, who was responsible for localising
the costumed kid's show and Thomas the Tank Engine for the U.S market,
had tried and failed (on a number of occasions) to convince Wood to
allow him to move forward with a Teletubbies movie. He then found
inspiration in the oddest of places - while watching the audience
participating during a screening of Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail.
Seeing how the crowd 'interacted' with the movie, telling the characters
what to do (and not to do), he was compelled to reinvent the family
movie as an interactive experience. From this, he created The
Oogieloves, a film in which the audience are encouraged to shout, sing
and dance along with the on-screen action. The plot see the Oogieloves
(Goobie, Zoozie and Toofie) on a quest to recover five magical balloons
needed for a birthday party. Along the way they encounter all manner of
characters, including Lero Sombrero (Christohper Lloyd), Rosalie Rosebud
(Toni Braxton) and Marvin Milkshake (Chazz Palminteri). The picture
also features Jaime Pressly, Carey Elwes and Cloris Leachman.
With no TV show to hang the series off (the hope being the movie would
spawn its own TV show), The Oogiloves had to succeed on its own hype and
interactive elements. That last feature may actually make parents
reluctant to see it, along with all but the youngest of children.
Viselman certainly had confidence though, managing to secure the picture
a 2100+ location roll out (initially opening at 1500 midweek and
expanding on Friday). It seems that the producer's attempt to reinvent
cinema failed before it had chance to get off the ground. With school
back in session, the Oogiloves made just $102K on Wednesday, which
equated to around $47 per theatre. That figure is the lowest ever first
day for a picture at more than 2,000 locations - it snatched the
infamous title from the animated Delgo, which averaged $59 per screening
on its opening day. A very slight improvement followed on Thursday,
with the picture adding $123K. Hard as it is to believe, things actually
got worse for The Oogieloves on Friday, when it made just $95K. By the
frame's end, the family film, budgeted at $20M, had made just $448K,
$673K since Wednesday. That three day figure is lower than Delgo's three
day total of $511K and cements the film's reputation as the lowest
performing wide opening release (above 1,000 locations) of all time.
Expect the Oogiloves to vanish even quicker than they appeared.
With its DVD/Blu-Ray release just a few weeks away, Disney opted to put
The Avengers back into 1700 locations this frame and were rewarded with a
$1.7M weekend total. That brings its domestic tally to an astounding
$619.5M. Its global total now stands at $1.501B.
Finally, the raunchy comedy, For A Good Time, Call...which sees two room
mates starting a phone-sex business, made $141K from 23 theatres.
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