Box Office - March 14, 2011

Another box office weekend, another box office disappointment.

Battle: Los Angeles claimed the top spot in a weekend that was down about 26% from the same weekend last year.  Bringing in an estimated $36 million, the movie didn't do badly, but the the three new wide releases this week failed to even make as much as Alice in Wonderland did in its second week last year at this time.  Battle: Los Angeles falls into the middle of the pack as far as box office generated in its opening weekend.  It did fare better than last year's Skyline, but not near as well as Independence Day.

Rango claimed the number two spot, bring it's haul up to around $69 million.  That moves it into #6 on the total box office for the year so far, but it's still a long ways from its reported $135 million production costs.

The Twihards did not turn out for Red Riding Hood, which opened slightly above last week's Beastly.  Bringing in a soft $14.1 million (especially since it was on over 3000 screens) to claim the number three spot, Red Riding Hood feels like a disappointment.  This movie had one of the heaviest advertisement pushes I'd seen so far this year, but it definitely didn't connect with its target audience.

Number four was The Adjustment Bureau in its second week.  

Mars Needs Mom was number five with just $6.8 million (just to compare - Gnomeo and Juliet opened nearly four times that amount and in its fifth week of release still pulled in more than half Mars' opening).  This is the major box office bomb of the week, and it may end up being the bomb of the year.  This movie reportedly cost $150 million to make.  It had the worst opening of a 3D movie in the modern era, and ranks #10 on the list of all time worst opening for movies that opened on more than 3000 screens.  I have a feeling it's going to be a rough day for some executive at Disney.

The best of the rest:

#6 - Hall Pass

#7 - Beastly

#8 - Just Go With It

#9 - The King's Speech

#10 - Gnomeo and Juliet

To date, no movie has crossed the $100 million mark.  The three highest grossing films of the year so far are The Green Hornet, Just Go With It, and Gnomeo and Juliet.  While all three will end up really close to that number, I'm not sure if the residual box office will be enough to push them over the edge.

Next week should be an interesting week.  Paul opens up, and it has the potential to do well, based on its stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Seth Rogan.  Limitless and The Lincoln Lawyer have both been getting a major advertising push.  I expect they'll do well, but not have huge numbers for the weekend, based on how other dramas have fared so far this year.  I'm looking forward to seeing all three films.