{"id":3297958,"date":"2012-04-30T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insidepulse.dev\/?p=297958"},"modified":"2012-04-29T16:33:20","modified_gmt":"2012-04-29T20:33:20","slug":"weekend-box-office-think-like-a-man-still-1-as-audiences-decide-to-skip-the-five-year-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/2012\/04\/30\/weekend-box-office-think-like-a-man-still-1-as-audiences-decide-to-skip-the-five-year-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Box Office: Think Like A Man<\/i> Still #1 As Audiences Decide To Skip The Five-Year Engagement<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It’s Kevin Hart: A star in one comedy, just some guy in another.<\/center><\/i><\/p>\n

There’s probably a morale wrapped up in this weekend’s box office that goes something like this. Just because a movie has ethnic stars does not mean it is for a specific demographic. Think Like a Man<\/I> doesn’t make $60 million in two weeks just because it has a large cast of actors that are usually regulated to sidekick roles in more broader comedies with marketable white stars in lead positions. It makes $60 million because other demographics have decided they want to see a romance that involves issues that permeate in relationships today. Despite its mixed critical reactions (currently at 51% on RT), the ensemble rom-com has a committed cast at making it work. Much more so than Garry Marshall’s insipid Valentine’s Day<\/i> or New Year’s Eve<\/i>. Kevin Hart, who is the poster child (read: the guy who is marketed the most) for Think Like a Man<\/i> also has a supporting role in the release of The Five-Year Engagement<\/i>, which finished the weekend in fourth place with $11.15 million. Unfortunately, Hart slides into the sidekick, supporting role and is only given brief moments in which to illicit laughter. Playing on a little more than 2000 screens, the Screen Gems comedy is just a few million away of become the studio’s third biggest hit of 2012 behind 21 Jump Street<\/i> and The Vow<\/i>. With a reported budget of $12 million to produce (three of the new releases topped out over $26 million), the profit margin will be wide even if foreign audiences don’t gravitate to the material or the actors and actresses involved. <\/p>\n

Families looking for escapism only had one new release. Aardman’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits<\/i> finished in second with $11.4 million. Without the name recognition of a Pixar or DreamWorks Animation, or noted A-list celebrities lending their voices, it did about as well as it could have. But it had a close battle with The Lucky One<\/i>, which lost half of its first-week audience to end the weekend just above $11.3 million. <\/p>\n

Some movie called The Hunger Games<\/i> (I hear it’s based off a book) is still raking in the dough. This blockbuster freight train from late March continues to make money and has been a top five staple for six weeks. Whether or not it will remain in the top five next week, will all depend how gargantuan release The Avengers<\/I> is surely to be. The numbers will definitely be skewed, with the Marvel Comics’ epic taking a majority of the money, leaving the rest of the competition in the dust. <\/p>\n

Judd Apatow may be losing some of his mojo. Aside from Bridesmaids<\/I>, he has failed at producing hits of late. Wanderlust<\/I> was a bomb, and his third directorial effort from a few years ago, Funny People<\/I> was a disappointment. As the third film from Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller (after Forgetting Sarah Marshall<\/I> and Get Him to Greek<\/i>), The Five-Year Engagement<\/i> opened to poor returns ($11.15 million). Their previous collaborations opened in the $17 million range. Apatow’s own This is 40<\/I>, opening in theaters this Christmas, may be his last-ditch effort with the studio and be the deciding factor if they continue to do business together or have an amicable split. <\/p>\n

If you have said to yourself that the theater is in dire need of Jason Statham punching and kicking things, well you are in luck. Lionsgate’s Safe<\/I> continues the yearly tradition of getting a Statham movie to the cineplex. He’s like a Saw<\/i> or Paranormal Activity<\/I> franchise. Only this time the stories and locations change but it’s pretty much the same movie over and over again. At $7.7 million after one weekend, I wouldn’t call Statham’s film a safe<\/i> bet for box office success. Besides, what kind of guy goes to a movie called Safe<\/I> anyway? It needs to be called Danger! Danger!<\/i> <\/p>\n

John Cusack may have been hoping for film renaissance with The Raven<\/i>, a film that for the longest time looked like it could have become a franchise to rival Robert Downey Jr.’s interpretation of Sherlock Holmes, but when you have the director of V for Vendetta<\/I> at the helm (who also did the regrettable Ninja Assassin<\/i>), then you had to suspect that Cusack would have been better off dead<\/em> than better off playing Edgar Allan Poe. <\/p>\n

In its second weekend, audiences were still going bananas for Chimpanzee<\/i>, Disney’s latest nature doc that looks to be doing better than the last few Disneynature releases. At this rate to finish around $25 to $30 million is a big win for the studio. Rounding out the list is Fox’s The Three Stooges<\/i>, which has been somewhat successful on the account that it is just occupying space that should have gone to the much better Cabin in the Woods<\/i>. The Joss Whedon produced (he also co-wrote the screenplay) horror comedy had been collecting dust for a number of years. Now finally seeing the late of day it has amassed $35 million in three weeks. Next stop – $40 million, with an outside chance at $50 million. <\/p>\n

On the independent front, Best Foreign Film nominee Monsieur Lazhar<\/I> saw a 33-screen expansion and brought in $252k as a result. Newcomers Bernie<\/i> and Sound of My Voice<\/i> opened to decent returns. The Richard Linklater comedy (mockumentary?) starring Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey had a per-screen average of $30k at 3 locations, while Fox Searchlight’s psycho drama opened at five locations to $40k. <\/p>\n

And overseas, The Avengers<\/i> has broken several box office records, assembling a mighty fortune. Already the film has grossed more than $178.4 million. What do you think it will do when it opens in the U.S.\/Canada on Friday, May 4th? If The Hunger Games<\/i> can do $152 million opening weekend, surely this can make an effort to surpass Harry Potter<\/I>‘s $169 million haul for the Deathly Hallows Part 2<\/i>. <\/p>\n

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Box office holdover holds off three newcomers that opened to less than expected results. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2977,23],"tags":[11992,31710,29012,25514,10376,19209,32788,28790,32061,30290,19641,32830,31568],"zone":[121874],"series":[],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/insidepulse.com\/feed\/podcast\/inside-pulse","embedCode":"

Weekend Box Office: Think Like A Man<\/i> Still #1 As Audiences Decide To Skip The Five-Year Engagement<\/i><\/a><\/blockquote>