Weekend Box Office Report: July 26-28 2013

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT "” July 26-28, 2013(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

1. The Wolverine ($55.0 million)2. The Conjuring ($22.1 million)3. Despicable Me 2 ($16.0 million)4. Turbo ($13.3 million)5. Grown Ups 2 ($11.5 million)

 

As the weekend's only new wide release, The Wolverine sliced and diced the competition. It earned an estimated $55 million, more than good enough for first place. Still, that's the lowest major Marvel opening since Marvel Studios began its box office stranglehold in 2008. That's just a hair below X-Men: First Class and The Incredible Hulk, and neither of those were in 3-D.

The Conjuring, despite its predictable second-week drop, is well on its way to being the highest-grossing R-rated horror movie since 2000. It should pass the first three Paranormal Activity films in the next two weeks. It doesn't have a shot at beating older phenomenas The Blair Witch Project or The Exorcist, but it's still quite impressive.

Finally, Despicable Me 2 surpassed $300 million, only the second film of the year to do so. It's already beaten the original film, and it's only been in theaters a month.  It also beat Monsters University. There's almost no chance any other animated film this year"”Planes, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 or Frozen"”will make as much.

Outside the top 5: - This Weekend's Indie Champ: Woody Allen's latest, Blue Jasmine, a more serious drama starring Cate Blanchett.  The film averaged $102,167 on each of its six screens, making it the year's highly limited release of the year.

- Fruitvale Stationexpanded in a big way this weekend, adding more than 1,000 screens. It jumped into the  top 10, earning more than $4.6 million. With very little competition for the next while, it should only inch up the list.

- Because life is unfair, here is a sad reminder that Grown Ups 2 has now made more than This is the End.

Next week: Because we're all being punished for not supporting better films, The Smurfs 2 opens Wednesday. It's the last family film before school starts, so parents will placate their kids by taking them. The original opened the exact same weekend two years ago, so it's sure to make at least $40 million and take No. 1. It's only competition is the pairing of Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg in 2 Guns. That should take second place with around $30 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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