The Halle Berry thriller The Call got good reception while poor ol' Burt Wonderstone proved anything but "Incredible" Heck even Spring Breakers did better than expected at the specialty box office as 2013's biggest open thus far...
Pamela McClintock of THR:
Steve Carell's magician-themed comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone opened to a dismal $10.3 million at the domestic box office, trailing both Oz the Great and Powerful and Halle Berry's new thriller The Call, which overperformed in nabbing $17.1 million.
Oz easily stayed at No. 1 in its second weekend, earning $42.2 million for a domestic total of $145 million -- the top gross of 2013. Sam Raimi's tentpole took in another $46.6 million overseas for a global haul of $281.8 million.
Raunchy comedy Spring Breakers -- starring Oz's James Franco -- made headlines at the specialty box office, where it opened to $270,000 from three theaters in Los Angeles and New York for a location average of $90,000, the best of 2013 and one of the top averages ever for a limited release. Directed by Harmony Korine's, the R-rated pic also stars Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson and is distributed by upstart outfit A24.
Heading into the weekend, box office observers believed The Call, which cost a modest $13 million to produce, would find itself in a close race with Burt Wonderstone for No. 2. But the R-rated thriller, from Sony and TriStar, quickly pulled ahead thanks in part to an ethnically diverse audience.
In the film, Berry plays a 911 operator who receives a call from a girl (Abigail Breslin) who has been abducted. The operator soon learns she must confront a killer (Michael Eklund) from her past. Brad Anderson directed the film, which was produced and financed by Troika Pictures and WWE Studios.
The Call earned a solid B+ CinemaScore, while New Line and Warner Bros.' Burt Wonderstone received a trouble C+ despite its star-studded cast, which includes Jim Carrey, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde and Alan Arkin.
Burt Wonderstone, a blow for Carell, marks the second New Line and Warner Bros. title to disappoint after Jack the Giant Slayer.
But with a production price tag of $32 million, Wonderstone is far less of a financial risk. Directed by Don Scardino, the comedy tells the story of Burt Wonderstone (Carell), a Las Vegas magician who reteams with a former partner (Buscemi) to take on up-and-coming street magician Steve Gray (Carrey).
Spring Breakers, financed and produced by Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures, opened Friday in three theaters in New York and Los Angeles after having its U.S. debut Sunday at SXSW. A24 Pictures is backed by Guggenheim Partners, an investment group that also owns Dick Clark Productions and Guggenheim Digital Media, parent company of The Hollywood Reporter.
Next Up: Scret Service agent Gerard Butler becomes America's only hope when the The White House is taken over by North Korean terrorists in Olympus Has Fallen--this bows almost three months before Sony Pictures opens a rival project with the similar action-thriller White House Down on June 28, 2013. Meet the prehistoric family The Croods in CG enhanced comedy. Tina Fey, Paul Rudd and Nat Wolff meet the Admission deadline. The war time romance Love and Honor, starring Liam Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer which has been available via VOD for weeks starts a limited run in theaters
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