Weekend Wrap-Up: Hero had a Big Opening
November 10, 2014
We had two potential monster hits go at it over the weekend and it appears the competition was a little too much and neither Big Hero 6 nor Interstellar lived up to lofty expectations, although Big Hero 6 was close. Combined the two movies earned more than $100 million over the weekend, which is reason to celebrate, even if the rest of the box office barely registered. Overall, the box office rose 65% from last weekend reaching $157 million. Wow. Unfortunately, this was still 6.5% lower than the same weekend last year. Had Interstellar matched expectations, 2014 would have come out on top of the year-over-year comparison. Hopefully it will have better legs than Thor: The Dark World did, or this weekend could be another loss. I'm hopeful, because The Dark World was a pretty big Fanboy film.
Big Hero 6 came close to matching expectations earning $56.22 million during its opening weekend. This is significantly better than what Wreck-It Ralph opened with back in 2012. Additionally, Big Hero 6 is earning better reviews, so it could have better legs. Even if it doesn't have better legs, using Wreck-It Ralph as a guide, Big Hero 6 is on target for over $200 million.
Interstellar missed expectations with just $47.51 million over the weekend for a total opening of $49.66 million, including its early IMAX run. This is a good opening, but $10 million below expectations. Where does it go from here? Its reviews are merely good and not great, so I don't think it will have the same legs as Gravity had, for instance. Unless it can stick around and get a boost from Thanksgiving, it won't match its production budget domestically. It should still break even early in its home market run, but it won't be a true monster hit.
Up next was Gone Girl, which actually climbed a spot to third place with $6.21 million over the weekend for a total of $145.54 million after six weeks of release. Not everyone thought it would reach $100 million domestically, so this is a fantastic run.
Ouija held on better than expected earning fourth place with $5.87 million over the weekend for a total of $43.33 million after three weeks of release. It is safe to say the film has become a midlevel hit given its production budget. It might become a franchise, even if that franchise drops to Direct-to-DVD.
Fury rounded out the top five with $5.63 million over the weekend for a total of $69.40 million after four weeks of release. It will start losing theaters at an accelerated pace at this point. However, it will match its $80 million production budget before its run is over, so as long as it can do relatively well internationally, it will break even sooner rather than later.
As for the sophomore class, Nightcrawler, fell to seventh place with just $5.37 million over the weekend for a total of $19.62 million after ten days of release. It only cost $8.5 million to make, so it isn't a true miss at the box office, but it also isn't a true hit. Finally there's Before I Go to Sleep, which... The film lost more than half of its theater count and plummeted to just $332,000 over the weekend for a total of $2.96 million. I don't know how long the distributor can last at this pace.
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Interstellar, Ouija, Fury, Big Hero 6, Before I Go to Sleep, Gone Girl, Nightcrawler