BY TIM BARLEY AND MIKE REYES
A Monstrous Weekend for Lionsgate, But A Triumphant One For Universal!
Good Monday afternoon, Mixers! Looks like you spread the word on some older favorites this weekend, while you didn’t even bother with the only newcomer this weekend. Seriously though, did ANY of you see I, Frankenstein. Even Cocktails and Movies president Tim did NOT see it, preferring to enjoy some volleyball, then golf and some pizza and beer with the boys. Then there was Sunday… But as far as I (ay ay yay), Frankenstein, it’s okay if you saw it. We promise no public shaming, we just want to know your thought and who has your family and what the ransom is for their safe release…
Anyway, here are the numbers from this weekend:
Box Office Estimates for 1/24 – 1/26 (actual/C&M est. and ranking)
1. Ride Along: Actual: $21.1 mil. / C&M Estimated – $34 mil. – 1st
2. Lone Survivor: Actual: $12.6 mil. / C&M Estimated – $19 mil. – 2nd
3. The Nut Job: Actual: $12.3 mil. / C&M Estimated – $10 mil. – 4th
4. Frozen: Actual: $9 mil. / C&M Estimated – $8 mil. – 5th
5. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit: $8.8 mil.
6. I, Frankenstein: Actual: $8.3 mil. / C&M Estimated– $16 mil. – 3rd
7. American Hustle: Actual: $7.1 mil. / C&M Estimated – $ mil. – 5th
8. August: Osage County: $5.04 mil.
9. The Wolf of Wall Street: $5.00 mil.
10. Devil’s Due: $2.8 mil.
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Universal manages to keep making January its plaything, as it wins the third weekend in a row at the top of the charts, and the first two films in the top 10. Ride Along practically has “sequel” written over it, and Lone Survivor will go into the books as another successful (and effective) look at modern combat. That’s not bad, considering this is the last week in the month, and Universal’s indie branch, Focus Features, has ANOTHER possible indie hit on their hands with That Awkward Moment. The Globe may have played its cards right, leading to a totally dominant first month of Box Office activity. Let’s just hope they’ve saved something for the Summer.
Meanwhile, on the Kids’ Movie front, The Nut Job and Frozen are still managing to separate parents from their money, and children from their reality. Don’t expect the latter to falter any time soon, as the “Sing Along” edition will be released on Friday, for all five people who thought to themselves, “You know what this movie was missing? A singing audience!” Rounding out the box office top 5 was Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Our guess is that either people listened to us and went to see it, or Nana and Gramps needed a movie to see that their Teenage Granddaughter would have also sat through quietly. It’s ok, Chris Pine has that effect on everyone.
Which brings us to the bottom 5 of the weekend, headed up by the poorly performing I, Frankenstein. The Aaron Eckhart vehicle barely had enough gas to get around the block with a 6th place / $8.3 million opener, and it’s only going to drop from there. Here’s hoping Eckhart can lift himself back up, do some solid Indie flicks, and play some A-List ball again someday. It’s ok I, Frankenstein… Devil’s Due feels your pain, as it fell from a dubious 7th place start to a meh-tacular 10th place second weekend. If you’ve got a “found footage” flick coming out at some point this year, don’t put too many hopes on being a smash hit.
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Monday Thoughts from Tim: In other news, the Super Bowl is next weekend and there are a few movies debuting that weekend. Now, I don’t work for any movie studio – not since I worked at Paramount in the 1990’s when it was a REAL studio – but I have to think that somewhere someone knows that there will always be a Super Bowl played in the first week of February, so why schedule a release on that weekend? Now, you may say: “But, Tim, no other studio is going to, so there’s no competition.” I guess that case could be made, but you’re basically losing one whole day of money as everyone is going to be at a bar or party watching the Big Game. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
On the screenplay front, Quentin Tarantino’s now screenplay for the shelved Hateful Eight western has appeared for download on the ‘net. As someone who writes a lot, including this site and a good portion of its social media content alongside Mike Reyes, copyrighted material is an important issue. Sure, Tarantino had not registered it yet and had sent the early rough draft to only a few friends. But, it made it out into Hollywood where it made it’s way to copy machines everywhere… It’s a dick move by whatever one of those friends’ agents leaked it, and they should never work in this town again. It’s a lot like The Spirit of Christmas which spawned a little cartoon called South Park, except at that time the two guys named Matt Stone and Trey Parker were unknowns. (sigh) I feel bad for him as a fellow writer and hope that he decides to revisit it in a few years.
It’s the last week in January, and we’re almost in the mood for Love, Heartache, and the whole damned mess that is “Romance.” Next month starts our “28 Days of Love Films, Beer Goggles and Haagen Daas,” – a time when you can watch movies that celebrate love, heartache, breaking up, getting back together, getting the girl (or guy) or exemplifies the continuing search for “the one.” With a name like that, it’ll prove to be an interesting time at C&M, and you’re going to want to stay in touch here at the site and on Facebook and Twitter.
After all, who else is going to tell you, “Never watch a bad movie without a good cocktail?”
The post The Weekend Wrap Session: No One Can Storm the Lionsgate appeared first on Cocktails And Movies.
