Even though four major releases opened this weekend, it was still a tepid box office overall. The clear cut winner was Lee Daniels' The Butler, the star-studded civil rights drama earning $25M, nearly matching it's production budget (accumulated through a whopping 41 producers!!!!). That's still a few million dollars short of analyst projections, but Weinstein has long term goals for this one that will probably include a major Oscar push later in the year. Boasting big names that include the powerhouse muscle of Oprah Winfrey, the film is well on its way to being Daniels' most lucrative yet, and should easily surpass the $63M haul of 2009's Precious. Some will hate the comparison (although the two films aren't that different really), but the haul is pretty close to what The Help did two years ago, and is slightly below what 42 did just a few months ago.
2. We're the Millers- $17.78M/$69.5M
Slipping only 33% from last week, We're the Millers is well on its way to being one of the more successful comedies of the year, and should knock on the door of $100M before too long.
3. Elysium- $13.6M/$55.9M
Last week's champ tumbled into third thanks to a sizable 545% drop, which is about par for the course for the genre.
4. Kick-Ass 2- $13.5M
We talk about the "Comic-Con Effect" a lot around these parts. That's when a film, usually based on a pop culture staple or minor comic book, seems like an amazing idea because the fanboys get really excited for it. However general audiences couldn't care less, and the film flops terribly. That's pretty much what has happened with Kick-Ass 2, which opened to a meager $13.5M, a full $6M less than 2010's Kick-Ass. As noted in our review, Kick-Ass was very much a product of its time, when it was cool to deconstruct the superhero genre just as it was really starting to take off. Well, that time is over, and audiences have moved on. Plus, the shock of a prepubescent Chloe Moretz slicing dudes up as Hit-Girl is long gone, and director Jeff Wadlow lacks the big name appeal of Matthew Vaughn. With the Kick-Ass 3 comic already on store shelves, there will undoubtedly be a groundswell of support for one more film. Just don't expect Paramount to listen this time.
5. Planes- $13.1M/$45M
6. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters- $8.3M/$38.9M
7. Jobs- $6.7M
The Steve Jobs biopic Jobs hit theaters in a very odd situation. While its 2381 theaters is definitely a wide open, few look at this as anything more than an indie feature. But at the same time it features a high profile story led by what many consider a major piece of stunt-casting with Ashton Kutcher in the lead role. So there has been a lot of buzz surrounding it, even if Kutcher and his millions of Twitter buddies couldn't make much of a dent at the box office. The $6.7M debut is hardly a disaster, though, as it makes up more than half the production budget. So Jobs will make its money back, Kutcher gets to prove he can do more than hock cameras in commercials, and everybody walks out unscathed.
8. 2 Guns- $5.5M/$59.2M
9. The Smurfs 2- $4.6M/$56.9M
$167M worldwide, though. Hey, we tried to stop it, right America?
10. The Wolverine- $4.4M/$120.45M
So how does a film like Paranoia, which has Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford snarling at one another, land outside of the Top 10 with only $3.5M at over 2400 sites? Easy. You have those two screen legends playing second fiddle to the ultra-boring Liam Hemsworth, who probably just saw his shot at being the leading man fizzle.
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