WINNER OF THE WEEK: Denzel Washington. At a time when not even Will Smith or Johnny Depp can guarantee box office success, 58-year-old Washington remains about as close to a sure thing as Hollywood has. Aside from his specialty dramaThe Great Debaters, Washingtons2 Gunsmarks the actors 11thstraight opening above $20 million. In fact, at an estimated $27.4 million, this weekends top movie is also the fifth-best opening of his career.
Universal predicted the film would only open in the low twenties, though the studio may have been low-balling in order to make the movie look like it overperformed. It actually opened around where most pundits had predicted it would. Considering that the buddy action-comedy cost just $61 million to make (pretty cheap considering that Washington and Mark Wahlberg are two of the best-paid stars in Hollywood), it should have little trouble making a profit.
Wolverine Through the Years
2 Gunsbeat a slate of older releases that held up reasonably well. Last weeks champ,The Wolverine, lost 59 percent of last weeks business, which is typical forX-Menmovies, but even with that decline, it still finished second with an estimated $21.7 million. Horror hitThe Conjuringwas fourth with an estimated $13.7 million, enough to cross the $100 million markon Saturday, its 16thday of release.Despicable Me 2rounded out the top five with an estimated $10.4 million, for a whopping $326.7 million over 33 days.
LOSER OF THE WEEK: Neil Patrick Harris. Not only did he not land the Oscar-hosting gig, but hisThe Smurfs 2underwhelmed with a third-place opening estimated at $18.2 million fromFridaytoSunday. (Since its openingWednesday, it earned $27.8 million, about what2 Gunsearned in three days.) The originalSmurfsopened on the same weekend two years ago, but it earned about twice as much over three days ($35.6 million) and 40 percent more over five days ($46.3 million). It even opened lower than the five-day debut of recent cartoon flopTurbo($31.0 million), which doesnt bode well for the rest of the films run.
Not that Sony is complaining; after all, the movie earned another estimated $52.5 million overseas, for a global total of $80.3 million. Once again, the foreign box office comes to the rescue of the domestic box office. Nonetheless,Smurfs 2might have done better at home had it not come so late in the season, well afterMonsters UniversityandDespicable Me 2. (Then again, withPlanesopening soon,Smurfs 2may just get lost in the family-film shuffle.)
SPECTACULAR WOW: Sundance favoriteThe Spectacular Nowopened on just four screens, but it earned an average of $50,000 on each of them. Thats the biggest per-screen average of the week by far. (2 Gunsopened with $9,045 per venue.) Also excelling at the art house: Woody AllensBlue Jasmine, which expanded from six screens to 50 and averaged $40,440 on each of them, for an estimated $2.0 million weekend. (With $3.0 million to date, its slightly ahead of where recent Allen smashMidnightin Pariswas at the same point in its release.) And Lindsay Lohans much anticipated art-house erotic thrillerThe Canyons, which debuted this weekend on video-on-demand cable and in one theater, earned a respectable $15,200 on that lone screen.