Box Office Guru Wrapup: Identity Thief Scores Big in Debut
Warm Bodies slids into second, and Soderbergh's final film nabs third.
This weekend, Universal's Identity Thief blew onto the scene with a surprisingly strong opening, while Steven Soderbergh's supposed last directorial effort debuted mildly in third. Returning films held on reasonably well, especially those of the Oscar variety.
Exploding into first place was Identity Thief, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, with an estimated $36.6M from 3,141 theaters, for a potent per-screen average of $11,650. Despite the controversial review of formerly influential critic Rex Reed, audiences dug the film, which outgunned the opening weekends of Bateman's Horrible Bosses ($28.3M) and McCarthy's Bridesmaids ($26.2), both from the summer of 2011. Instead Identity Thief opened in line with last year's spring hit 21 Jump Street which debuted with $36.3M on its way to $138.7M. If last year was the year of Tatum, could this year be the year of McCarthy, who has The Heat co-starring Sandra Bullock on tap for later this summer.
Second place belonged to the warm and fuzzy zombies of Warm Bodies. Dipping a reasonable 43% from its debut weekend, the Summit release ate up an estimated $11.5M bringing its cume to $35.5M.
Third place belonged to Side Effects directed by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, who claims this will be his last film. The thriller, which stars last year's "It Boy" Tatum, couldn't live up to the pair's last collaboration Magic Mike ($39.1M from last summer) and opened mildly with $10M, according to estimates, from 2,605 theaters for a per-screen average of only $3,845. I have a hard time imagining Soderbergh will be happy to go out on a note like this, so I'm betting he'll be back in the next couple of years.
The rest of the top 10 had a familiar look to it as Oscar films continued their push to Super Sunday on the 24th of this month. Leading the pack in its 13th weekend was Silver Linings Playbook, which fell a slim 11% to $6.9M this weekend, according to estimates, bringing its total to $89M. Fifth place belonged to the fairy tale darlings Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters which dropped 39% from last weekend to an estimated $5.8M, bringing its cume to $43M.
Sixth place belonged to the horror-thriller Mama which slipped 34% to an estimated $4.3M and a current total of $63.7M, impressive for a horror film. Jennifer Lawrence's biggest rival for the Best Actress Oscar landed in seventh place as Jessica Chastain and Zero Dark Thirty slid 23% from last weekend to $4M, according to estimates, bringing the war thriller to $83M.
On an amazing award winning streak, Ben Affleck's Argo added 470 theaters this weekend and jumped back into the top 10 in its 18th weekend, adding an additional $2.5M, according to estimates, bringing its total to $123.2M. Fellow Best Picture nominee Django Unchained took in an estimated $2.3M this weekend, bringing Quentin Tarantino's highest grossing film to $154.2M. And rounding out the top 10 was the Sylvester Stallone flop Bullet to the Head which dropped 56% from its dull opening to an estimated $2M, bringing its miserable total to $7.9M. One other film of note, the 3D IMAX re-release of Tom Cruise's classic Top Gun debuted just outside the top 10 with $1.9M from 300 screens for a per screen average of $6,333, second best in the top 20.
The top ten films grossed $85.8M which was down 49% from last year when The Vow and Safe House both debuted north of $40M; and down 33% from 2011 when the triumvirate of Just Go With It, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Gnomeo & Juliet all opened between $25M and $30M.
Janson Jinnistan
Rex Reed was "formerly influential"? That must have been before "Myra Breckinridge", right? I didn't bother looking at many reviews for "Thief", so I didn't know about this controversy. The review doesn't seem out of the ordinary for the cranky snapper, I've seen him be a lot meaner. Was it the "hippo" or the "tractor" comment that struck a nerve?
Feb 10 - 04:33 PM
Infernal Dude
JoBlo did a "Hot or Not" piece on McCarthy a week or so ago. Lets just say the comments were not kind to the poor, well fed woman.
But, to play devils advocate, we have been making fun of fat, male comedians for years. I don't think Farley, Candy, or even a young Jonah Hill could have made it as far as they did without using their weight to make a joke. I don't recall a critic outright calling them cows, but very often their appeal rivals "look at the fat man, he so funny cause he fat." Put your big girl pants on McCarthy (no pun) cause you're in the big leagues now and anything goes. Funny thing is she looks like, what, 60% of the country?
Feb 10 - 06:14 PM
Big Brother
I think the tone was different ID, I don't recall anyone being this critical of any of those guys you mentioned. No one called John Belushi a fat ass or implied that his weight was a negative to his career. It all comes down to laughing with someone or laughing at their expense. I don't think it would have been an issue to refer to Melissa in the terms used for say Chris Farley. They both know they're large and aren't pretending they're not, they're using it to their advantage. What Reed did was crossing a line for me specifically because there hasn't been the commonality between men and women on this issue. I don't recall their being that many female John Belushi's or John Candy's. Maybe Delta Burke and Kristie Alley, but they started out as sex symbols.
Feb 10 - 07:56 PM
Janson Jinnistan
Nell Carter, and I always thought Edie McClurg was hilarious.
Feb 10 - 08:27 PM
Infernal Dude
@BB. I'm not trying to justify what RR said in his review. They were low blows, for sure. But fat in Hollywood gets a bad angle and bad character writing, male or female. In the real world obesity means little in terms of a persons humanity, however, on film a fat character generally has the same traits. Look how everyone praised Sidibe in Precious. Or Camryn Manheim. A lot of their attention came from them being fat while also, OMG, being good actors! In the end, there's not a lot of "range" for a fat actor. Comedy is the best chance. And in comedy, fat jokes are endless. I don't agree that we are laughing with them. We are laughing AT them and they know it. Look at Farley and how miserable he really was. According to his brother, Spade, Michaels, and everyone else that knew him, he hated his weight and the fact IT was what defined him. He wanted that Fatty Arbuckle role so bad, because he knew that was the only role he could be fat and taken seriously. I guess I'm trying to say that we shouldn't take this treatment of McCarthy any different than we've treated fat male actors.
Additionally, obesity is not a good thing. Yes, some people have a genetic disposition towards being overweight but for the most part people are overweight by choice. Nearly every doctor will tell you the number one medical epidemic in this country isn't AIDs or cancer or diabetes its obesity. Rant over. Sorry....
Feb 10 - 11:54 PM
Big Brother
No no, you clarified your point nicely and I feel I have a much better understanding of where you're coming from. Never apologise for good honest discussion. It's a rarity.
Feb 11 - 04:34 PM
Infernal Dude
Word. Thanks, man.
Feb 11 - 05:46 PM
Sean D
The dude is like a low-brow Armond White :P
Feb 10 - 07:58 PM
Janson Jinnistan
I saw where Armond described "Bullet to the Head" as a "poetic narrative".
Feb 11 - 02:37 PM