Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful posted the best opening of 2013 so far with an estimated $80.28 million.  The new Oz movie’s debut was similar to that of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s $84.6 million December opening.  But Raimi’s fantasy film fell well short of Tim Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland, which bowed with $116.1 million and provided the financial impetus for Disney to go ahead with the expensive Oz: The Great and Powerful production.  The Oz movie’s potent debut made up for the poor start posted by Dead Man Down and powered the box office to a rare (at least so far in 2013) year-over-year win as the total of the "Top 12" films was up 7.2% from the same frame last year when The Lorax was enjoying its second weekend atop the chart.

 

Raimi’s Oz film is a "prequel" that pays homage to 1939 MGM classic (even going so far as to have a black-and-white prologue set in Depression-era Kansas).  Oz: The Great and Powerful attracted an opening weekend audience that skewed slightly female (52%) as it did well with kids (teenagers made up 16% of the crowd) and couples (which accounted for a solid 43% of admissions).  A solid 46% of the crowd was under 25 and the 37% increase from Friday to Saturday night is a good indication that Disney has hit its family audience target with this one.  Audiences gave the film a solid, but unspectacular, "B+" CinemaScore, slightly lower than the "A-" grade that Burton’s Alice in Wonderland achieved.  Reviews of Raimi’s film were mixed, but generally positive as the film’s current 60% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes indicates.

 

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): March 8-10, 2013
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Oz The Great and Powerful	$80,278,000	3,912	$20,521	$80,278,000	1
2	Jack the Giant Slayer	$10,020,000	3,525	$2,843	$43,811,000	2
3	Identity Thief	$6,319,000	3,002	$2,105	$116,530,000	5
4	Dead Man Down	$5,350,000	2,188	$2,445	$5,350,000	1
5	Snitch	$5,100,000	2,340	$2,179	$31,855,000	3
6	21 and Over	$5,056,000	2,771	$1,825	$16,840,000	2
7	Safe Haven	$3,800,000	2,541	$1,495	$62,884,000	4
8	Silver Linings Playbook	$3,745,000	1,727	$2,169	$120,749,000	17
9	Escape From Planet Earth	$3,207,000	2,549	$1,258	$47,832,000	4
10	The Last Exorcism Part II	$3,120,000	2,700	$1,156	$12,083,000	2

 

Raimi’s film earned 53% of its domestic gross from 3-D showings and 10% of its total from IMAX showings.  Overseas the film opened in about 80% of the world markets and earned a solid $69.9 million for a worldwide total of $150.2 million.  While the film’s performance has been great when compared with other films that have opened this year, it still has a long way to go before Disney ever sees a profit.  With its $215 million production budget and major promotional expenses, the film will likely have to earn $600 million worldwide to reach the black.

 

Raimi’s movie was Kryptonite for another fantasy film, Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Slayer, which tumbled 63.2% as it earned an estimated $10 million in its second frame, and brought its domestic total to just $43.8 million.  Only a solid foreign showing can save Warner Bros. and New Line from a major loss on this $195 million film, and so far the film’s foreign box office ($22.6 million) has not been impressive.

 

Meanwhile the "R" rated comedy Identity Thief continues to perform exceptionally as it dropped just 35% and earned $6.4 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $116.5 million.

 

Results were quite so good for the romantic thriller Dead Man Down, which earned just $5.3 million from over 2,100 theaters.  Directed by Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev, Dead Man Down is yet another "R" rated action film that has disappointed recently (see Parker, Bullet to the Head, The Last Stand).  Dead Man Down’s crowd was 60% male and 75% over the age of 25.  The film’s mediocre "B-" CinemaScore doesn’t provide much hope for its future.

 

While it’s not setting the box office on fire at least Snitch, which stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, hasn’t dropped as quickly as some of its action movie contemporaries.  The "PG-13" film dropped just 34.3% in its third frame as it earned an estimated $5.1 million.

 

Horror movies, with the exception of the Sam Raimi-produced Mama, haven’t fared very well in 2013 and The Last Exorcism Part II, which debuted last weekend, continued the negative trend as it plummeted 60% in its second weekend, falling to #10 as it earned a meager $3.1 million.

 

Check back next week to see if the Steve Carrell comedy, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone can keep the box office momentum established by Oz: The Great and Powerful going.