CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box-Office: Real Steel Punches Out The Ides of March

Seth Paul

It was a knockout, a one-two punch, a…well, all boxing references aside, the big movie of the weekend was the sci-fi robot boxing spectacle Real Steel. While only garnering average reviews, it made a fine debut, earning an estimated $27.3 million. It more than easily won out over the rest of the list, including the George Clooney/Ryan Gosling political thriller The Ides of March. Ides only made around a third of Steel’s take with an estimated $10.4 million, but at the same time has been more successful at winning over the critics. Doing well for its third week, Dolphin Tale doesn’t sink by much, gaining an estimated $9.2 million. It has done well at the box office, managing to make $49 million over its $37 million budget.

Moneyball fell to fourth with an estimated $7.5 million, while 50/50 held its own with an estimated $5.5 million and Courageous with an estimated $4.6 million. While Moneyball has the critics raving and has nearly made up its $50 million costs, both of the other two films went the independent route and have shown a profit on miniscule budgets. 50/50 only cost $8 million, but has raked in $17.3 million and wide acclaim, while Courageous has taken in $15.9 overall and suffered a beating from critics, despite costing only $2 million to make.

The Lion King 3D must have done better than Disney’s expectations, as its original “two-week only” run has expanded into a fourth week and an estimated $4.6 million in revenue. The re-release has made Disney an additional $86 million to add to the $312.9 million it made in its original run in 1994. Re-release or no, it still stands tall above the final three films on the list, which have failed to wow critics and audiences alike. Dream House, despite the star billing of Daniel Craig, made an estimated $4.5 million and $14.5 million overall, on a film that cost $50 million to make. What’s Your Number? hasn’t done much better, only getting an estimated $3 million this week and $10.3 million overall on its $20 million budget. Technically, despite landing in the final spot, Abduction has done better than either film, though with $2.9 million this weekend and a $12 million shortfall of its production costs ($23.4 million in gross sales domestically), that’s not saying all that much. The foreign market seems to be helping Number and Abduction a bit, but Dream House doesn’t seem to be all it’s built upon.

Weekend Box-Office (September 30 – October 1)

  1. Real Steel…$27.3 million
  2. The Ides of March…$10.4 million
  3. Dolphin Tale…$9.2 million
  4. Moneyball…$7.5 million
  5. 50/50…$5.5 million
  6. Courageous…$4.6 million
  7. The Lion King 3D…$4.6 million
  8. Dream House…$4.5 million
  9. What’s Your Number?…$3 million
  10. Abduction…$2.9 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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