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Box Office Weekend: Chappie Tops Unfriendly Box Office

Seth Paul
Box Office Weekend

Director Neill Blomkamp took the weekend box office with his latest science fiction epic Chappie, though it is not as impressive a debut as it might seem. With the box office even down from last week, Chappie and its estimated $13.3 million is a weak start for a $49 million budgeted film…and it has not seen much better in overseas earnings. Focus, on the other hand, is seeing some pick up thanks to overseas performance, but an estimated $10 million is still keeping it from little more than tepid against its Chappie$50.1 million budget. No word on the success of third-place finisher, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, as its budget is not reported, but with an estimated $8.6 million it is likely doing a decent start on its own merits, as the original film only cost about $10 million to make.

Kingsman: The Secret Service picked up an estimated $8.3 million. With a worldwide take of $248.3 million, it has managed to prove itself a decent success, though domestically nowhere near the success of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, whose estimated $7 million put it at $149 million in domestic earnings, or Fifty Shades of Grey, whose estimated $5.6 million gives it $156.4 million domestically and $527.7 million worldwide.

McFarland, USA remains a middling effort regardless of its unreported budget, an estimated $5.3 million weekend putting it at $29.4 million in total. While The Lazarus Effect is not a runaway hit itself, it is wildly successful on its own terms, an estimated $5.1 million adding to a $17.4 million total…not bad for a film that only cost $3.3 million to make. In the final two slots, The DUFF pulled in an estimated $4.9 million and proved a decent winner with $26.1 million in total, but Vince Vaughan and his Unfinished Business debuted in tenth with an estimated $4.8 million…and with poor reviews, the $35 million comedy has already proven itself a bomb.

(On a side note, American Sniper, while not on the top ten, managed to become the highest earning domestic film of 2014 this past weekend, earning $337.2 million.)

Weekend Box Office (March 6th – March 8th)

  1. Chappie…$13.3 million
  2. Focus…$10 million
  3. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel…$8.6 million
  4. Kingsman: The Secret Service…$8.3 million
  5. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water…$7 million
  6. Fifty Shades of Grey…$5.6 million
  7. McFarland, USA…$5.3 million
  8. The Lazarus Effect…$5.1 million
  9. The DUFF…$4.9 million
  10. Unfinished Business…$4.8 million

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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