Box Office Weekend: Other Debuts Get Served by The Butler

Despite (or because of) Oprah Winfrey’s recent controversy in Switzerland, her new film, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, made the strongest bid for the box office with an estimated $25 million, almost enough to give the $30 million film a profit over the weekend (and get in good with critics). However, the two other big new releases of the week fared much less successfully; Kick-Ass 2 received poor reviews and a fourth-place finish with an estimated $13.6 million (far below its estimated $28 million costs), as did Jobs, whose estimated $6.7 million and seventh-place finish and poor reviews do not spell the kind of success the actual Steve Jobs accrued in his lifetime. However, the $5.3 million that Jobs needs to break even is far less than Kick-Ass 2’s $14.4 million.

The top three got rounded out by second week favorites We’re the Millers, whose $17.8 million estimate has made it a rousing comedy success, while Elysium’s estimated $13.6 million spells trouble, as it will most likely have to rely on foreign box office to make back its $115 million budget, let alone profit (and a far cry from director Neill Blomkamp’s previous District 9 in terms of success). The fifth- and sixth-place finishers, Planes (estimated $13.1 million) and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (estimated $8.4 million) are comparatively similar, as Planes approaches success and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters faces breaking even via worldwide gross, though neither has made the kind of money that either second or third place finisher has taken in, regardless of world location.

In eigth, 2 Guns flirts on the edge of profit with an estimated $5.6 million, the action buddy film a minor player compared to previous films by either of its two main stars (especially compared to the runaway success of Mark Wahlberg’s Ted and Denzel Washington’s Safe House). In ninth, The Smurfs 2 (estimated $4.6 million) may not have sat well with American audiences, but made quite a smash elsewhere, bringing in three times as much overseas as it did here and ensuring a strong box office haul. And The Wolverine (estimated $4.4 million), while remaining solidly last among previous X-Men films in domestic earnings despite favorable reviews, broke past the original X-Men film taking into account its worldwide gross. While certainly a box office winner now matter how it is sliced, the diminishing returns for the franchise are probably not sitting well with investors, even with further films known to be in the works.

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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."

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