The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
The box office love kept on going this weekend as last week’s mega-hit, Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3, was joined by another possibly more surprising blockbuster in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, which brought in a ton of business to open with an impressive $51.1 million.
The two movies were fairly neck and neck as of Friday, both grossing just over $19 million, and though it dropped 58% from its opening weekend, Iron Man 3 held up well in its second weekend to gross an an estimated $72.5 million in 4,253 theaters, bringing its domestic total to $285 million.
Internationally, the superhero blockbuster added another $89.3 million in 55 territories to bring its international total to $664 million, its $949 million global total putting it in the Top 20 for all-time global grosses.
Baz Luhrmann’s fifth movie in twenty years, The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke, really had an impressive weekend with that $51.1 million divided across roughly 3,500 North American theaters for a per-theater average of $14.5 thousand per site.
By comparison, Luhrmann’s biggest domestic hit Moulin Rouge! only grossed $57.4 million in 2001 on its run to Oscar night where it mainly won technical awards, but The Great Gatsby is also Leonardo DiCaprio’s second-highest opening for a movie following Christopher Nolan’s Inception in 2010.
Although it doesn’t open in North America for four more days, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek into Darkness started its run in seven international markets including the UK where it brought in $31.7 million.
Nothing else in the Top 10 made more than $5 million with Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain (Paramount), starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie, taking third place with that amount, having grossed $41.6 million since opening in late April.
Tyler Perry attached his name as a presenter to Tina Gordon Chism’s family comedy Peeples, starring Craig Robinson, Kerry Washington, David Alan Grier, S. Epatha Merkerson and Tyler Williams, but that wasn’t enough to get his fans into theaters. After a slow Friday of $1.2 million, it rebounded slightly over the weekend to a gross of $4.8 million to take fourth place.
Brian Helgeland’s Jackie Robinson biopic 42 (Warner Bros.) took fifth place with $4.6 million, still holding its business well to the gross of $84.7 million.
Surprisingly, it’s actually grossed more than the Tom Cruise sci-fi actioner Oblivion (Universal), co-starring Morgan Freeman, which took sixth place with $3.8 million and $81.6 million total.
DreamWorks Animation’s family comedy hit The Croods dropped to seventh with $3.6 million and $173.2 million so far, while Justin Zackham’s ensemble comedy The Big Wedding (Lionsgate) took eighth with $2.5 million and $18.3 million total.
The Top 10 brought in an estimated $151.2 million which was down only slightly from the same weekend last year when Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s Dark Shadows opened far weaker, although Marvel’s The Avengers held up better.
In limited release, two horror movies opened in selected cities and did piddling business as the Eli Roth-produced and co-written Aftershock (TWC-Radius) brought in just $40 thousand despite being on 110 screens. The WWE Films-produced No One Lives (Anchor Bay Films), starring Luke Evans, did slightly better with $46 thousand in 53 theaters or $866 per site.
Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.
