Weekend Box Office Report: March 6-8 2015

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT 

March 6-8, 2015(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 51. Chappie (13.3 million)2. Focus ($10.2 million)3. The Second Best Exotic... ($8.6 million)4. Kingsman ($8.3 million)5. The Spongebob Movie ($7.0 million)

Looks like everyone stayed in this weekend to finish House of Cards. Audiences stayed away from theaters altogether this weekend, based on the receipts. Chappie is South African director Neill Blomkamp's third straight No. 1 opening, but also his smallest opening yet. Chappie took in only $13.3 million, way off from Elysium's $29.8 million and District 9's $37.3 million. In fact, this is the lowest debut for a No.1 movie since 2012's End of Watch, which only made $13.1 million.

Focus slipped to No. 2, dropping only 46 percent. It might make back its $50 million budget, but this isn't quite the grand return of Will Smith just yet. The only movie that can really be celebrating this weekend is The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the geriatric romantic comedy set in India. It only opened on a fraction of the screens the other films have opened on recently, but still made $8.6 million.

Meanwhile, Kingsman still hasn't reached the $100 million milestone and SpongeBob is still inching closer to $150 million. But Hollywood shouldn't have reason to fear: next week starts an onslaught of new films that should bring gigantic openings that will essentially bring the summer blockbusters all the way into spring. 

Outside the top 5: - This Weekend's Indie Champ: A re-release of Albert and David Maysles' seminal documentary Grey Gardens. The film showed on just one screen in honor of Albert's passing and took in $12,300.

- Vince Vaughn better hope True Detective revitalizes his career. His latest, Unfinished Business, opened all the way down in 10th place with a meager $4.8 million. That's his worst wide opening ever.

- Well, it finally happened. American Sniper passed $337 million this weekend, officially making it the highest grossing movie of 2014.

Next week: Let summer begin! Kenneth Branagh's live-action take on Cinderella should open with at least $40 million. That will be more than enough to put away Liam Neeson's latest thriller Run All Night, which should still make around $20 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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