WINNER OF THE WEEK: Estrogen. Female-driven movies sold nearly $60 million worth of tickets this weekend. The princesses ofFrozensnowballed past the gladiators ofThe Hunger Games: Catching Fire, ending the latters two-week chart reign, but both movies did ridiculously well, withFrozengrabbing an estimated $31.6 million andCatching Firean estimated $27.0 million. After two weekends in wide release, that amounts to $134.3 million forFrozen, while three-week-oldCatching Fireboasts a total of $336.7 million so far.
LOSER OF THE WEEK: Testosterone. The weekend after Thanksgiving weekend tends to be a dead spot for new releases, but someone has to be the sacrificial lamb, and this year, it wasOut of the Furnace, the small-town revenge thriller starring Christian Bale and Woody Harrelson. It did okay, opening in third place with an estimated $5.3 million. Thats about in the middle of the wide range of predictions for the film (from $4 to $7 million), but its not that great for a movie with this kind of star power and some modest awards-season buzz. Weak word-of-mouth (measured by a C+ grade from CinemaScore) didnt help, nor did the fact that the similarHomefrontopened just last week (its still hanging in there, in sixth place, with an estimated $3.4 million.) Plus, Bale fans know thatAmerican Hustleis the Bale film to see this month, so maybe theyre holding out until that opens next weekend.
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Add the meager takes forThor: The Dark World(in fourth place, with an estimated $4.7 million in its fifth weekend) andDelivery Man(at Number Five with an estimated $3.8 million after three weeks), and you might even get the sense that macho movies are not whats driving the market at the multiplex these days.
INSIDE STORY: The Coen brothers much-toutedInside Llewyn Davisopened on just four screens this weekend, but it grossed an astounding $100,250 on each of them, for an estimated total of $401,000. Not that anyones predicting blockbuster numbers for the folk-singer film when it opens wide (while critics adore it, its hardly the kind of crowd-pleaser that the Coens last film,True Grit, was), but a per-screen average that huge is a great start.
The suddenly and sadly timely biopicMandela: Long Walk to Freedomis also playing on four screens; in its second week, it earned an estimated $77,700, or $19,425 per screen. Thats still a strong per-venue average; every other movie currently playing earned less than $10,000 per screen this weekend.
Some awards hopefuls are still expanding into wider release, includingThe Book Thief(Number Seven this week, with an estimated $2.7 million) andDallas Buyers Club(cracking the top 10 this week in tenth place with an estimated $1.5 million). Then theresLee Daniels The Butler, which has been playing since August but added 936 screens this weekend (up from 71 last week) in hopes of sweeping up some awards-season cash. The ploy failed, and the film earned just an estimated $260,000, or a measly $258 per theater. GuessThe Butlerwill just have to settle for being a $115.9 million smash.