As usual on Super Bowl weekend, the box office was down quite a bit from last week. 'Kung Fu Panda 3' led the weekend box office for the second time in a row while 'The Revenant' and 'Star Wars' held up pretty well, the latter of which crossed two major milestones this weekend. As for the new releases, the Coen Brothers brought 'Hail, Caesar!' to theaters only to be met with decent results, the latest Nicholas Sparks film continued the downwards trend of the genre, and 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' failed to bring the zombie genre back to life.
Dropping a significant 49.1% from its $41.3 million opening (a franchise low), 'Kung Fu Panda 3' continued to underwhelm with a $21 million take. The $145-million Jack Black led animated comedy has received less positive reviews from critics than from the last two installments (an 80% RT score), but is the highest-rated in the franchise when it comes to word-of-mouth (an 88% Flixter score and an 'A' CinemaScore, tied with 'Kung Fu Panda 2'). It is actually performing rather closely to last November's 'The Peanuts Movie', which opened with $44.2 million and fell 45.7% in its second weekend to earn $24 million. However, 'Panda' has the added benefit of President's Day next weekend, which will certainly help it hold up a lot better than the 45% third-weekend decrease of 'Peanuts'. There isn't any major family competition until 'Zootopia' on March 4, so it should benefit from that too. So far, a $135 million is most likely.
In second place, the Coen Brothers directed $22-million mystery comedy 'Hail, Caesar!', which opened to a modest $11.4 million for a $5.1k per-theater average. That is a bit below the $12m-$15m pre-release projections, and a low opening in general for the Coens. Unfortunately, old-fashioned movies aren't really connecting with audiences anymore ('In the Heart of the Sea', 'The Finest Hours', and now 'Hail, Caesar!' have all disappointed) with the exception of 'Brooklyn', which received extremely positive reviews and Oscar buzz. Younger audiences are becoming a bigger portion of moviegoers, and apparently 1950's set films regardless of their star-studded cast just don't seem appealing to them. And while reviews are fairly positive (79% on RT), word-of-mouth is unusually and unexpectedly very negative (48% Flixter score and 'C-' on CinemaScore).
The comedy began with $4.3 million on Friday (including $543k from Thursday), increased 21.7% on Saturday to earn $5.3 million, and fell a whopping 65.1% on Sunday to make $1.8 million (due to the Super Bowl). That places the weekend-to-Friday ratio at a decent 2.65-to-1. That is better than the 2.59-to-1 ratio of last year's 'Project Almanac' but well below the 2.94-to-1 ratio of the Coens' 'Burn After Reading', another star-studded mid-budget project that included George Clooney. 'Caesar' was also more front-loaded than the 3.19-to-1 ratio of 2014's 'The Monuments Men', which was received negatively by both critics and audiences. A finish slightly above $30 million is very likely.
'The Revenant' was pushed down one spot, declining 44.4% and making $7.1 million. The $135-million Leonardo DiCaprio led Western thriller has so far made a very strong $149.7 million in seven weeks of play (including its limited run). Strong reviews and word-of-mouth as well as the Oscar nominations continue to play a pivotal role in its box office performance, and should get 'Revenant' past $165 million before it disappears from theaters.
In an exceptionally solid fourth, 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' had the best hold among the wide releases this weekend, dropping just 38% to gross $6.9 million. In the process, the $200-million J. J. Abrams directed franchise revival passed the $900 million mark domestically, the first film in history to ever do so (not adjusting for inflation). With a whopping $906 million in the bank, 'Star Wars' currently stands in eleventh place on the all-time adjusted chart, past '101 Dalmations' ($869.3m) and below 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' ($948.3m). 'Star Wars' likely close with around $920 million total. Worldwide, it became only the third film ever to cross the $2-billion mark, joining the likes of James Cameron's 'Avatar' ($2.8b) and 'Titanic' ($2.2b). It doesn't seem like 'Star Wars' will catch up to either of those films (though it could come close to 'Titanic''s figure), but with $2.008 billion already, it doesn't have to. It has so far gathered $1.1 billion overseas. A $2.15 billion worldwide total seems likely at this point.
In a soft fifth place, the $10-million Nicholas Sparks adaptation 'The Choice' debuted with a meager $6.1 million for a $2.3k average. That is way below the previous franchise lows of 'The Best of Me' ($10m) and 'The Longest Ride' ($13m). If it wasn't already, it is now crystal clear that Nicholas Sparks movies definitely aren't as popular as they were a few years ago (the most recent Sparks hit is 'Safe Haven' with $71.3m total). Reviews are absolutely horrible (a paltry 8% on RT), but audiences (as usual) are more forgiving (64% on Flixter).
After receiving $2.5 million on Friday, 'Choice' increased 7.7% on Saturday and brought in $2.7 million and fell 65% on Sunday to earn $935k. The weekend-to-Friday ratio here is 2.44-to-1, which is on par with 'The Best of Me' and better than 'The Longest Ride' (2.36-to-1). Because Valentine's Day is coming next week (although it will face some competition from 'How to Be Single') and mostly positive word-of-mouth, 'Choice' has a chance at holding up better than both of those films. However, just to be safe, I'm predicting a $15 million domestic cume.
Although 'Choice' was no blockbuster, it wasn't the biggest disappointment of the weekend. That title belongs to the $28-million YA adaptation 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies', which could only muster $5.2 million and a $1.8k average. That is way below expectations, which tended to range from $9.5m-$12m. Period horror isn't doing so well nowadays, as last fall's 'Crimson Peak' and 'Victor Frankenstein' were outright flops.
'Pride' started out with $2 million on Friday, increased 15.2% on Saturday to earn $2.3 million, and dropped 65% on Sunday to make $820k. The weekend-to-Friday ratio is 2.6-to-1, which is below 'Zombieland' (2.63-to-1) but better than 'Warm Bodies' (2.52-to-1), which also opened on Super Bowl weekend but earned a solid $20.4 million. With middling reviews (41% on RT) but decent word-of-mouth (63% Flixter score), it's kind of hard to predict where it will be heading. It would be surprising, though, if it made much more than $15 million in the long run.
Overall, the Top 12 of the weekend was down 34.4% from the previous run, earning $81.6 million. It is also down 40.3% from last year when 'Spongebob 2' ruled the box office, though that was the weekend after Super Bowl weekend.
President's Day weekend should be a lot more interesting, as the very highly-anticipated R-rated superhero action comedy 'Deadpool' will finally arrive in theaters after the dreadful 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' version, the also-highly-anticipated sequel to the 2001 cult hit 'Zoolander', and the romantic comedy 'How to Be Single', which stars Rebel Wilson and Dakota Johnson, the lead of last year's massive success 'Fifty Shades of Grey'.
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