Terrible reviews and a dismal 25% Rotten Tomatoes score, you say? That did not matter to female audiences this weekend who wanted a little girl power as they flocked to “The Other Woman” starring Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton as a cooperative that band together in the name of female-based revenge against a cheatin’ asshole. Perhaps that was the unifying hook that drew the underserved female audiences in, because the movie scored the number one box-office slot with approximately $24.7 million in receipts and landed a B+ CinemaScore. In the process, the movie unseated “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” which had spent three weeks at the top of the box-office until now.
The Marvel movie only fell 53%, still grossing $16 million in its fourth weekend in theaters. The Chris Evans-starring sequel has grossed $645 million worldwide (thanks to a boost in China, where it’s crossed the $100 million mark) and $213 million domestically. That makes it the 3rd-highest grossing Marvel movie (worldwide and stateside) so far, outperforming both “Iron Man 2” and “Thor: The Dark World” in one weekend fell swoop. That’s a fantastic benchmark, but cracking the billion dollar mark still feels a little unlikely as the competition for summer blockbusters will get fierce very soon and, presumably, audiences will be spending their money on many other options. Still, clearly a major success, especially since Captain America was supposedly the least interesting Avenger.
Religious dramas are having a super strong year in 2014 and “Heaven Is Real” continues that trend. The drama with no stars only fell 43% in its second week, dropping only one spot to the number 3 position, and has grossed $42.2 million domestically so far. This one’s a huge success TriStar/Sony. Despite being one of his last farewell films, audiences were cool on Paul Walker‘s “Brick Mansions,” which played on a almost 2,500 screens. Grossing an underwhelming $9.6 million in its opening weekend, the number was even lower than recent mid-sized studio pics that audiences mostly shrugged off like “3 Days To Kill,” “Pompeii” and “The Family.”
“Rio 2” is on the decline, falling 66% in its third weekend. The movie is pacing about the same as the original, grossing $285 million worldwide thus far. The original almost hit the $500 million mark internationally. While that seems unlikely here, I’d still expect a sequel if I were you. Meanwhile, on the other side of kids animation, “Frozen” passed the $400 million mark domestically in its 23rd week of release. That’s Disney’s sixth film to surpass that mark ever.
Perhaps to no one’s surprise, Warner Bros.’ “Transcdence” flopped again in its second week of release. The Johnny Depp-starring film that failed with both critics and audiences fell 64% and took an estimated $4 million total. It’s grossed $18.4 million off a $100 million budget, so unless Depp’s trip to China pays off (internationally as well), WB is going to end up with a major black eye on this one.
Supernatural horror underwhelmed hard this weekend for Lionsgate. Horror audiences tend to like broad with sexy teens (though we suppose “The Conjuring” was a recent exception). Starring non-star Jared Harris, the movie mostly bombed with a nationwide debut that fell below $5 million and a low C+ CinemaScore. To no one’s shock, “Haunted House 2” has almost fallen out of the top 10 in its second week, and the other God-loving indie “God’s Not Dead” has grossed $50 million so far for Freestyle Releasing, which has gotta be some kind of record for that little studio.
At the speciality box-office, Tom Hardy‘s “Locke” — a one man show, he’s the only character on screen — drove in with some impressive numbers. The movie, only on four screens, opened in limited release with over 89K for a solid $22,302 per screen average. Also in limited release, RADiUS-TWC‘s “Blue Ruin” grossed $31,832 for a $4,547 per screen average. Out on seven screens, the movie was also out on VOD, but TWC doesn’t release those numbers. But it is #11 on the iTunes chart and TWC says the movie is “kicking some serious butt” on VOD. Still performing well in limited release is John Turturro‘s “Fading Gigolo” co-starring Woody Allen. The movie had the second highest per screen average of the weekend after “Locke” so it’s nice to see people are still coming out to attend adult-driven indies like this one.
Internationally, “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is doing rather amazingly, despite being roasted at home by U.S. critics and tracking numbers looking comparatively low (by summer blockbuster standards of course). The film has grossed $132 million worldwide with a big boost from South-Korea, Russia and Japan this weekend. If the last ‘Spider-Man’ movie was any indication, this movie could perform supersized worldwide, but mildly at home. The first ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ movie opened to $95 million in its opening weekend stateside and the sequel is looking to hit that same ballpark figure, but we’ll presume it can surpass it.
1. “The Other Woman” – $24.7 million
2. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” – $16 million ($224.8m)
3. “Heaven Is Real” – $13.8 million ($51.9m)
4. “Rio” 2 $ – 13.6 million ($96.1m)
5. “Brick Mansions” – $9.6 million
6. “Transcendence” – $4.1 million ($18.4m)
7. “The Quiet Ones” – $4 million
8. “Bears” – $3.606 million ($11.1m)
9. “Divergent” – $3.6 million ($139.4m)
10. “A Haunted House” – $3.2 million ($13.5m)