Brent Lang of Variety:
“Exodus: Gods and Kings” toppled “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1″ from its perch atop the box office, but its opening weekend results fell short of heavenly status.
The biblical epic picked up $24.5 million from 3,503 locations. That was in line with projections, but bringing the story of Moses to life carried a hefty $140 million price tag. The 20th Century Fox production will need to perform well overseas and will have to build an audience stateside if it’s going to be profitable.
The debut audience was 54% male and 65% over the age of 25, and the film played particularly well to hispanic and African-American moviegoers, who made up 18% and 20% of the crowd.
“We got the religious audience, but the opening audience was much more diverse than just that,” said Spencer Klein, executive vice president of theatrical distribution at Fox.
Its opening also fell short of other religious themed films such as “Noah” ($43.7 million) and “The Passion of the Christ”($83.8 million). One thing working in “Exodus'” favor is that films that open in December have a longer runway. The Christmas holidays means that many moviegoers are on vacation, allowing films that debut softly to stick around longer than they might in other times of the year.
“This is a great start for us leading into the holiday stretch,” said Klein, adding, “In this play period you get such a big multiple [on a film’s opening weekend].”
Parting the Red Sea and unleashing plagues of frogs played well in premium formats. “Exodus” generated 11% of its opening from premium large screen formats and 44% of its receipts from 3D showings.
The weekend’s other major wide new entry, “Top Five,” picked up $7.2 million across 979 locations, good enough for a fourth place finish. Chris Rock wrote, directed and stars in the film about a comedian at a professional and personal crossroads, earning some of the strongest notices of his career.
“We got the launch we wanted and the reaction we had hoped for,” said Rob Moore, vice-chairman of Paramount Pictures. “We do feel that word-of-mouth is going to continue to build as we keep expanding.”
Paramount Pictures picked up worldwide rights to the film from the Toronto Film Festival for $12.5 million and as part of the pact, the studio agreed to pay at least $20 million in promotion and marketing. It will be in roughly 2,000 screens by New Years and will begin its overseas launch next year.
Rock, who gave buzzy interviews with the likes of New York magazine and host “Saturday Night Live,” has been indefatigable in his support for the picture.
“He worked his butt off and put so much of himself into the movie and into his support of it,” said Moore.
The overall box office was down sharply from the year-ago period when “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” debuted to $73.6 million.
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1″ may have ceded its throne, but it still pulled in a crowd, picking up second place on the charts with $13.2 million. The blockbuster sequel has earned $277.4 million after a month in theaters.
Coming in at third and fifth position were “Penguins of Madagascar” and “Big Hero 6,” which pulled in $7.3 and $6.1 million. “Penguins of Madagascar” has generated $58.8 million in receipts and “Big Hero 6″ has racked up $185.3 million.
In the art house scene, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice” did respectable business in five New York and Los Angeles locations. The adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s mystery novel earned $330,000 in its opening weekend, for a per screen average of $65,952. The film opens wide over the Christmas holidays, but may have trouble finding an audience unless it starts to generate more awards attention.
Among Oscar hopefuls, “Theory of Everything” picked up $2.5 million and “The Imitation Game” nabbed $875,136, pushing their totals to $17 million and $2 million, respectively.
Fox Searchlight’s “Wild” earned $1.6 million after expanding from 21 to 116 theaters. It has made $2.4 million in two weeks of release. The indie label’s “Birdman” flew past $20 million this weekend, after picking up $1.3 million.
On Wednesday--the final installment of Peter Jackson's trilogy film adaptation of author J. R. R. Tolkien's book--The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies arrives.
As promised this film seems far more like the Lord of the Rings trilogy than either of the previous two - no more singing around the dining table, no light dwarf comedy here. Instead there's a lot of fighting, a lot of armies, and death.
In Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb star Ben Stiller and director Shawn Levy reunite for the sequel that follows the further adventures of museum guard Larry Daley (Stiller), who discovered that the exhibits come to life under cover of darkness..
Robin Williams reprises his role as President Theodore Roosevelt. A role he has played in both "Night at the Museum" and "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian". Former Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens will play Lancelot here. Skyler Gisondo, who played Emma Stone’s brother in “The Amazing Spider-Man,” will star as Nick, son of Stiller’s Daley. Ricky Gervais plays Dr. McPhee, Daley’s boss again. Rebel Wilson will play the night guard at the British museum where the action the action is set this time out. Sir Ben Kingsley will portray an Egyptian pharaoh, Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan also appear.
The Annie remake sees Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis ("Beasts of the Southern Wild") star as the iconic big-hearted orphan adopted by a new incarnation of Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks named Benjamin Stacks (Jamie Foxx) in this contemporary update of the classic Musical and Comic Strip.
No comments:
Post a Comment