It should be noted that Kung Fu Panda’s 3 successful reign is as much about the weakness of the competition as is about the strength of the franchise, which appears to be waning on the domestic front. Panda 3’s 10-day total is less than the inflation-adjusted first weekend of the first Panda movie ($72 million), and almost equal to the six-day opening earnings of Panda 2 ($66.75 million). Even worse for the film’s overall prospects--after its stellar opening weekend in China, it dropped 70% and earned just $15 million. Kung Fu Panda 3 will get a chance to redeem itself, when it opens in much of the rest of the world in March, but the odds appear at this time to be stacked against it ever achieving “hit” status.
Hail Caesar, the latest example of the love/hate affair the Coen Brothers have with Golden Age Hollywood, earned just $11.4 million from 2,222 theaters, making it the lowest-debuting wide release among the many Coen Brothers films. With a horrible “C-“ Cinemascore from opening weekend audiences, expect Hail Caesar to drop like a stone in the coming weeks in spite of the fact that the critics liked it (79% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes).
Like a moth to the flame, the Coen Brothers keep returning to the narrative and stylistic tropes of classic Hollywood films in movies like Barton Fink. The Hudsucker Proxy, and Hail Caesar in which they utterly fail to conjure up the tone and grace of the classic movies they are attempting to satirize. Of their Hollywood-inspired pictures, only the Preston Sturges-suggested O Brother, Where Art Thou, has any real life on screen, and most of that comes from the inspired work on the film’s soundtrack by music producer T-Bone Burnett.
Third place went to Oscar hopeful The Revenant, which dropped just 44.1% as it earned $7.1 million, bringing its domestic total to $149.7 million. The Revenant, which cost $135 million to produce, has now earned over $326 million worldwide, a major feat for such a brutal and uncompromising film. Leonardo DiCaprio’s strong performance and the movie’s major Oscar buzz has definitely played a major role in making Alejandro Inarritu’s The Revenant a hit.
|
Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): February 5-7, 2016 |
||||||
|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
|
1 |
Kung Fu Panda 3 |
$21,000,000 |
3,987 |
$5,267 |
$69,050,957 |
2 |
|
2 |
Hail, Caesar! |
$11,440,000 |
2,232 |
$5,125 |
$11,440,000 |
1 |
|
3 |
The Revenant |
$7,100,000 |
3,018 |
$2,353 |
$149,703,403 |
7 |
|
4 |
Star Wars: The Force Awakens |
$6,890,000 |
2,262 |
$3,046 |
$905,961,469 |
8 |
|
5 |
The Choice |
$6,085,000 |
2,631 |
$2,313 |
$6,085,000 |
1 |
|
6 |
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies |
$5,200,000 |
2,931 |
$1,774 |
$5,200,000 |
1 |
|
7 |
The Finest Hours |
$4,715,000 |
3,143 |
$1,500 |
$18,380,660 |
2 |
|
8 |
Ride Along 2 |
$4,520,000 |
2,172 |
$2,081 |
$77,206,830 |
4 |
|
9 |
The Boy |
$4,098,000 |
2,214 |
$1,851 |
$26,895,684 |
3 |
|
10 |
Dirty Grandpa |
$4,050,000 |
2,567 |
$1,578 |
$29,389,753 |
3 |
J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens slipped to #4 in its eighth weekend in theaters, earning $6.9 million and bringing its domestic total to $905.96 million, making it the first film to break the $900 million mark (not accounting for inflation). Overseas the film has earned $1.1 billion, and on Saturday The Force Awakens became only the third film to pass the $2 billion mark globally (not adjusted for inflation). The Force Awakens took 53 days to make the $2 billion mark, six days longer than Avatar, which earned a ridiculous $2 billion outside of North America. It appears unlikely that The Force Awakens will earn the $178 million needed to pass The Titanic’s $2.186 billion total (which includes the earnings of a 3-D re-release), but that doesn’t mean that Abrams’ film isn’t a total smash.
The fifth spot went to The Choice, the latest adaptation of a novel by Nicholas Sparks, which debuted with just $6 million. The good news for the film’s producers is that The Choice received an OK “B+” CinemaScore, the bad news is that the most recent Sparks’ adaptation, The Longest Ride, earned more than twice as much ($13 million) on its opening weekend, than did The Choice, which lacks the starpower necessary to make the romantic drama a hit.
The mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is based on the novel by the opportunistic Seth Grahame-Smith, and the film’s dismal opening proves that the “walking dead,” in spite of their exalted place in the current pantheon of horror, are not enough to carry a film by their shambling selves. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ mediocre “B-“ CinemaScore does not bode well for this film’s appeal in the domestic market.
Disney’s true life Coast Guard rescue drama, The Finest Hours, followed up its weak debut at #4, with the biggest percentage drop of any film in the top ten (54.7%), as it fell to 7, earning just $4.7 million.
But The Finest Hours’ drop was nothing when compared the Marlon Wayans’ parody 50 Shades of Black, which plummeted 66%, but even that plunge paled beside that of the Natalie Portman western Jane Got a Gun, which plunged 84%, earning just $127,000 from over 1100 theaters.
Be sure to check back here next weekend for what should be a very busy Valentine’s Day/President’s Day weekend when Deadpool attempts to resuscitate the superhero career of Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern) in the face of competition from Zoolander and How to Be Single.
