The box office results for the weekend of April 20th – 22nd sees an unlikely film dethrone The Hunger Games off its comfy perch for the last five weeks. Think Like a Man over-achieved in a financial sense and has earned rave reviews from moviegoers thus far. Also doing well in its debut was the latest Nicholas Sparks’ romance product. Here are the studio estimates:
1. Think Like a Man ($33 million)
2. The Lucky One ($22.8 million)
3. The Hunger Games ($14.5 million)
4. Chimpanzee ($10.2 million)
5. The Three Stooges ($9.2 million)
6. The Cabin in the Woods ($7.7 million)
7. American Reunion ($5.2 million)
8. Titanic 3D ($5 million)
9. 21 Jump Street ($4.6 million)
10. Mirror Mirror ($4.1 million)
Analysis
The stars aligned for Screen Gems’ Think Like a Man. Having a relatively low production budget of $12 million enabled everyone involved to celebrate this weekend. Everything is working in this flick’s favor, well, besides some past-their-prime film critics slamming this; but with a two-week buffer zone before the summer blockbusters start to assault theaters, this could make a solid push to the $100 million mark.
Nicholas Sparks has yet another one of his sappy novels adapted into a cinematic feature in the form of The Lucky One. Budgeted at $25 million (typical for any adapted Sparks’ product), Warner Bros. has to be pleased that this patent romance tale became the author’s 2nd highest grossing opening to date (2010’s Dear John hit $30.4 million). Only bad news hitting this product is the lovely critics loathe this sucker.
Disneynature released its fourth title in Chimpanzee and it will easily give the sub-divisions largest opening weekend to date. The budget for these types of cinematic documentaries range all over the place (2009’s Oceans rang up an $80 million bill); so it’s tough to state whether this will be a Flopper or a Sleeper.
The Hunger Games is up to $356 million on the domestic front. Mind-boggling comes to, uh, mind.
21 Jump Street currently holds the longest streak in the top ten with 6 weeks. Domestically, this has climbed to just under $127 million…and there’s still a little gas left in the tank.
This Friday, another full slate of wide releases invades hoping to jump start the summer movie season a bit early. The Raven, The Five-Year Engagement, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, and Safe all try to capitalize on their respective niche markets. Reviews will be right here my fellow Shockers!
