With its #1 finish yet again, critically lauded and audience loved The Lego Movie continues to dominate the box office. Last week it dropped 41%. This week its attendance numbers only dropped 36.9% allowing the Warner Bros.’ animated hit to finish with an estimated $31.4 million. Domestically it is a very healthy $183.1 million. Take in to account how it has performed worldwide and The Lego Movie is at a robust $275 million. And it will only continue to grow in the weeks leading up to the release of Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted.
Far behind those interlocking bricks were Kevin Costner’s 3 Days to Kill ($12.3 million) and the Sony/TriStar disaster flop Pompeii ($10 million). While Europa Corp. and Relativity were hoping to attract the same audience that Liam Neeson’s Taken did – I did notice an older audience in some auditoriums (I guess they had already seen Clooney’s The Monuments Men) – Luc Besson’s latest Taken-type scenario wasn’t a hit with critics and judging by the turnout audience approval was lax as well. I didn’t particularly care for it, but it should do well as a RedBox rental or via streaming.
Paul W.S. Anderson, who is a few notches higher than Uwe Boll when it comes to botched movies (PWSA at least gave us Event Horizon, and I have a soft spot for his steampunk version of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Muskateers), delivered Pompeii which from the advertisements didn’t look that appealing. It just sort of showed up wanting to get in the game and people just didn’t care. Not helping things was having a reported $100 million project without any star power to back it up. Outside of Game of Thrones‘ fans, does the general public know Kit Harington? As for the female lead, Emily Browning, some may remember her as “Babydoll” in Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch (aka Why You Don’t Invest Too Much To Let Some Directors Realize Their Fantasies On Screen). For what it’s worth, internationally Pompeii made a reported $22.8 million. That’s a good start, but it’s got quite a ways to go before not being labeled a “turkey.”
Sony Pictures took a number of spots in the top ten. Actually, spots three through six. Besides Pompeii, Sony had RoboCop, The Monuments Men and About Last Night. We know that Pompeii had a bad debut; RoboCop continues to underwhelm, at least domestically. It has amassed $43 million in two weeks, but overseas you can tack on another $100 million in box office receipts. The Monuments Men continues modest business as it appeases the over-40 crowd that enjoys George Clooney’s easy style of direction (call it Clint Eastwood-lite). But the biggest surprise is seeing how far About Last Night dropped after its strong debut last week, finishing in second place. Its attendance plummeted 71.1%. While its African American leads suggest that it is a “black film,” the crackling dialogue suggests otherwise. But I guess its strong aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes wasn’t enough to convince potential viewers.
Nearing the bottom of the top ten we have Frozen, still maintaining Top 10 relevancy long after its Thanksgiving debut. Worldwide it should surpass one billion by the end of this weekend. Second to About Last Night‘s calamitous drop was Warner’s Winter’s Tale, a passion project fairy tale from Akiva Goldsman that dropped 70% in a week’s time. Not much better was the ’80s retread Endless Love which almost lost that much in attendance, but has somehow managed $20 million in two weeks despite the likes of Alex Pettyfer as your leading man. Didn’t people see I Am Number Four, or have they already erased that from memory.
In limited release, Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises collected $306k from 21 theaters. A $15k per screen average is good, but not super impressive. Still, it’s better than the period thriller In Secret which played in 266 theaters yet only earned $272k.
This weekend we have Taken on an airplane with the Liam Neeson starrer Non-Stop, plus Fox’s Son of God (which I believe is just a condensed version of last year’s hit History Channel miniseries The Bible). I’m still going with The Lego Movie to repeat once again in the number one spot (est. $22 million – $24 million).
Full top ten list below.
1. The LEGO Movie (Warner Bros.) – $31,450,000 ($275,660,000 WORLDWIDE)
2. 3 Days to Kill (Relativity) – $12,300,000
3. Pompeii (TriStar) – $10,010,000
4. RoboCop (Sony Pictures) – $9,400,000 ($143,600,000 WORLDWIDE)
5. The Monuments Men (Sony Pictures) – $8,100,000 ($58,050,000)
6. About Last Night (Screen Gems) – $7,400,000 ($38,150,000)
7. Ride Along (Universal) – $4,667,000 ($123,173,000)
8. Frozen (Buena Vista) – $4,357,000 ($980,361,000 WORLDWIDE)
9. Endless Love (Universal) – $4,301,000 ($20,142,000)
10. Winter’s Tale (Warner Bros.) – $2,130,000 ($11,224,000)
