0
Posted May 20, 2013 by Seth Paul in News
 
 

Box Office Weekend: Star Trek Into Darkness Less Than Expected, Still Warps Past Competition

When a four-day weekend expected to bring in $100 million only gives an estimated $84.1 ($70.6 million for the three-day), chances are an investor might be a little disappointed. But for most, an opening that big is a good thing, and critics and audiences alike are enjoying their forays to see Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to the J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the classic franchise. It was enough to drop Iron Man 3 to the second place slot, but even so Marvel is in no way disappointed, the estimated $35.2 million a wonderful addition to a film that has broken the $1 billion barrier in worldwide sales. In third, while getting nowhere near the acclaim or dollars of its competitors, The Great Gatsby is by no means a failure, its estimated $23.4 million still one of the top draws of the weekend.

Star Trek Into DarknessFor the third week in a row, the remainder of the top ten cannot break the $10 million mark in weekend earnings; but even worse, they did not even break the $5 million mark. Pain & Gain was the best of the rest, with an estimated $3.1 million, and while profitable still falls well short of blockbuster earnings. The Croods, the longest lasting film in the top ten (now that Oz the Great and Powerful seems well and truly done), still has a nice trickle of income with an estimated $2.8 million even after nine weeks. The biopic 42 also has quite the nice box office performance, as six weeks and an estimated $2.7 million weekend resulted in $88.7 million total income, well over its $40 million budget.

It is a close race between three of the four at the bottom of the list. Oblivion (estimated $2.2 million) enters week five without much to say…while not a bomb (counting foreign sales), it has not made much of an impact. Mud, on the other hand, opened to little fanfare and is doing fairly well for its independent status, an estimated $2.2 million giving it a total of $11.6 million, enough to make it break even. The same amount is nowhere near enough to make Tyler Perry Presents Peeples a success, as the film’s estimated $2.2 million weekend grab dropped it to ninth from fourth last week. The film, costing $15 million, has just barely made back half of its costs and one the first real busts for Tyler Perry, though it is fair to say it is the least involved he has been with any project with his name on the credits. It is not alone, though…The Big Wedding made an estimated $1.1 million, and remains a bust despite its big name cast.

[springboard type=”video” id=”689739″ player=”cnim002″ width=”560″ height=”315″ ]

Weekend Box Office (May 17th – May 19th)

  1. Star Trek Into Darkness…$70.6 million ($84.1 million for four-day weekend)
  2. Iron Man 3…$35.2 million
  3. The Great Gatsby…$23.4 million
  4. Pain & Gain…$3.1 million
  5. The Croods…$2.8 million
  6. 42…$2.7 million
  7. Oblivion…$2.2 million
  8. Mud…$2.2 million
  9. Tyler Perry Presents Peeples…$2.2 million
  10. The Big Wedding…$1.1 million
Seth Paul

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."