The biggest problem I'm having with "The Hunger Games" continuing to win every weekend is trying to find a new damn photo from the film for every post! That's right, for the fourth straight weekend, "The Hunger Games" proved mightier than the rest of its competition. Even with three new wide-releases out - "The Cabin in the Woods", "Lockout", and "The Three Stooges" - it still managed to pull away. You can see that things are finally starting to even out a bit though, and "The Hunger Games"' margin has grown smaller and smaller each week (as would be expected).
"The Cabin in the Woods" and "The Three Stooges" managed respectable opening weekend takes, while our other new release, "Lockout", left a lot to be desired. And "Titanic" and "American reunion" (second-weekers) both managed to hang in the top five.
It's really not even fun talking about "The Hunger Games" anymore. With it's intake this weekend ($21.5MM) it's total gross is now at a whopping $337MM. On one hand I feel like I want to say I'm amazed that this movie keeps putting up the numbers it's putting up, but on the other, it keeps doing it, so to continually be amazed makes me feel ignorant. But it's impressive nonetheless, and clearly people continue to want to see this movie. It only beat out "The Three Stooges" by $4MM this weekend though, so I doubt it can hold the lead much longer; it seems we're getting close to the tipping point. But with such a weak lineup of films next weekend, who knows.
Finishing in second and third place this weekend were "The Three Stooges" ($17MM) and "The Cabin in the Woods" ($14.8MM), respectively. Overall, I think I'm impressed with how much both of these films made. "The Three Stooges" has received overly negative reviews, but it just goes to show that the nostalgic crowd showed up this weekend. From people that were legitimate fans of the original material, I'm hearing positive things. But from most others that have no ties, it's nothing to write home about. $17MM is strong for a PG movie that's not necessarily family oriented though (not that it's not good for families, it's just not exactly marketed for that specific audience like an animated movie might be or something). But of all the numbers this weekend, I'm most impressed/proud for what "The Cabin in the Woods" pulled in. Yes, it's gotten fantastic feedback, but it's still a genre piece that could have went either way. You can check out Ben Foutch's review of the film here, but I can tell you - the movie is fantastic. It's worth a watch. So I'm glad it did well, and I hope that of everyone that saw it this weekend, word of mouth is strong and it encourages strong second week numbers.
Rounding out the top five were a pair of films both in their second weekends. "Titanic" came in forth place with an $11.6MM purse, while "American Reunion" finished fifth with $10.7MM. Nothing too out of the ordinary or surprising for those two films; "Titanic" and a much softer percentage drop than did "American Reunion", but from opening weekend numbers, I didn't expect much different. Of course you'd like to see "American Reunion" bring in more than a re-release in its second weekend, but it's at about $40MM total now, so by next weekend it should at least make its budget of $50MM back. I was hoping for a little more from this film, but it is what it is. "Titanic" by the way, is doing perfectly fine without the chump-change $11MM+ it's bringing in here. Apparently, the film broke its own record ($44MM) for an opening weekend in China with $58MM this weekend. I'm not sure what it is about this story, but they sure do love it in China. That's one film, top two spots in opening weekend grosses.
A handful of other films hovered in the 6-10 slots, but the biggest of note has to be "Lockout", which finished in the ninth position ($6.25MM). While I enjoyed this film, it definitely wasn't a Cabin in the Woods. It doesn't really surprise me that it finished the lowest of the three new releases, but I truly expected a little more than this. With only a $20MM budget though, there's little risk, and this movie should for sure make that back over the next couple of weeks. Guy Pearce makes the movie, the rest is just more content added to an overly-saturated genre.
"The Raid: Redemption" opened wider this weekend and put up some numbers to prove it. Still only 800 theaters, but with Nathan's reactions to the film (which you can listen to on tomorrow's CinemaCast), I'm glad to see this movie doing well.
Not much else of note though. Make sure to check out the big board below, courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
