42 Hits a Home Run at Weekend Box Office

North America was in the mood for baseball at the box office this weekend as the Jackie Robinson biopic 42 stepped up to the multiplex plate and landed in first place. The Warner Brothers movie easily beat the weak debut of Weinstein’s Scary Movie 5 while knocking last weekend’s number one film Evil Dead down to fifth place in the process. The top ten was down 15% from last weekend but even with last year’s totals at this time.

Coinciding with the start of the 2013 Major League Baseball Season, 42 rode the wave of an effective marketing campaign to launch on 3,003 screens for a great $27.5 million in its debut and an excellent $9, 074 per screen average. The $38 million production about the African-American baseball legend stars Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and Harrison Ford as Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, and was written and directed by Brian Helgeland (Payback, L.A. Confidential).


A major motion picture chronicling Robinson’s struggles to become an MLB player in the 1940s despite monumental racial opposition has been on the drawing boards in Hollywood for decades, with filmmakers such as Spike Lee attached to the project at one point or another. Given the film’s positive reception from critics and ticket buyers this weekend, the delay may have paid off. Critics gave 42 a solid 75% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (although many thought that the film played it a bit too safe for its own good at times) and ticket buyers gave 42 an “A+” CinemaScore rating. The latter should help 42 have a nice healthy run over the next several weeks.

There was a time not too long ago where the arrival of a new Scary Movie sequel would guarantee a big box office opening. Scary Movie 3 opened to $48 million in 2003 and Scary Movie Four earned $40 million in its first three days back in 2006. Those days, however, appear to be long, long gone. After collecting dust for seven years, the Weinstein Company decided to revive the series and make Scary Movie 5. Judging by the dismal $15.1 million the movie pulled in this weekend from 3,402 screens, one has to wonder why they bothered. Reviews were not surprisingly dismal (6% on Rotten Tomatoes). The latest round of pop-culture and film spoofs was directed by Malcolm D. Lee and stars Ashley Tisdale, Simon Rex and Katt Williams, and features cameos from Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan.

Still hanging tough in third place was the Fox/Dreamworks’ animated hit The Croods. Everyone’s new favorite prehistoric family earned another $13.2 million in its fourth weekend of release and has been displaying better legs than rival family flick Oz The Great and Powerful. Off only 36%, The Croods has earned a great $142.5 million in domestic sales and should continue to excel throughout April as school spring vacations are in full swing. The breaks should help the movie head to the $190 million mark by the end of its run. Overseas, the movie has earned a big $207 million as of this past Thursday.

In fourth place was the Paramount action flick G.I. Joe: Retaliation. The sequel/reboot dropped 48% in its third weekend to earn an estimated $10.8 million on 3,535 screens. The domestic total stands at $102.4 million and should finish with approximately $125 million. The movie has earned $145 million so far overseas and should pass by the foreign haul earned by the 2009 original within a few days.

Rounding out the top five this weekend was last week’s number one film Evil Dead. The remake of the 1983 Sam Raimi classic dropped by 63% in its second round on 3,025 screens, which tends to be the norm for a horror movie these days. Evil Dead earned an estimated $9.5 million in its second go around to bring its ten-day total to $41.5 million and should finish its run around the $55 million mark.

The remainder of the top ten was as follows:

6. Jurassic Park 3D (Universal) $8.8 million (-52%); $31.9 million to date

7. Olympus Has Fallen (FilmDistrict) $7.2 million (-28%); $81.8 million

8. Oz The Great and Powerful (Disney) $4.8 million (-39%); $219.4 million

9. Tyler Perry’s Temptation (Lionsgate) $4.4 million (-55%); $45.4 million

10. The Place Beyond the Pines (Focus Features) $4 million; $5.4 million

Next weekend, the Tom Cruise sci-fi epic Oblivion makes its North American debut while Anchor Bay Films gives Rob Zombie’s latest horror feature The Lords of Salem a limited release. Look for Oblivion to knock 42 out of first and run away with the weekend.

– Shawn Fitzgerald

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