WINNERS OF THE WEEK: Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis. Want to know why Aniston keeps getting to make movies? The estimated $26.6 million opening weekend forWere the Millersoffers a clue. It debuted in second place among four new nationwide releases, but its the only one that outperformed expectations. As Aniston and Sudeikis learned two years ago withHorrible Bosses, raunchy, R-rated comedies often do well in the summer.This one did pretty darn good, considering that another R-rated comedy,2 Guns, opened just last week and is still in the top five (it finished fifth, with an estimated $11.1 million). Plus,Millerswas made for the bargain price of $37 million, so its five-day total (it openedWednesday) of $38.0 million is a good sign. Sudeikis decision to leaveSaturdayNight Liveafter 10 seasons to seek his fortune in Hollywood is looking like the right call.
The weekends top movie, Neill Blomkamps sci-fi political allegoryElysium, debuted in first place with an estimated $30.4 million. Thats at the low end of expectations. Indeed, Its well below the $37.4 million debut of Blomkamps previous sci-fi political allegory, August 2009sDistrict 9, released when the South African director was an unknown quantity and without such box office draws asElysiums Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. Also, this time Blomkamp has to worry about making back a nine-figure budget, though as with this summers other original sci-fi movies (After Earth,Pacific Rim), overseas audiences will probably come to the rescue; already the movie has earned an estimated $10.9 million abroad.
Matt Damons Physical Evolution
Also in the winners column: DisneysPlanes,which debuted in third place with an estimated $22.5 million. The movie is a spinoff of Pixars popularCarsfranchise, though Pixar had nothing to do with this modest-budget ($50 million) knockoff, which was originally meant to go straight to DVD. Still, audiences really enjoyed it (judging by the A- grade from CinemaScore), and it can boast the largest August debut for an animated film ever.
LOSER OF THE WEEK: ThePercy Jacksonfranchise. Well, in a four-way race, someones gotta come in fourth. In this case, its the teenage fantasy franchise that hoped to be the nextHarry Potter, though the firstPercy Jacksonmovie stalled out at $88.8 million in North America. But overseas grosses liftedPercy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thiefto a global total of $226.5 million, which is why were getting a sequel, albeit three and a half years later, whenLightning Thiefs audiences may have outgrown the characters. At least that movie bowed with $31.2 million; the newPercy Jackson: Sea of Monsterscould muster up just an estimated $14.6 million from FridaytoSunday, good for fourth place, and a total of $23.5 million since its releaseon Wednesday. Again, foreign grosses ($9.8 million so far) could save the movie, but its still going to be an uphill climb toward recouping the movies $90 million budget and getting a third installment greenlit.
ORAL REPORT: Poor Linda Lovelace, screwed again.Lovelace, the biopic of theDeep Throatstars tragic life, opened on 118 art-house screens but earned just an estimated $184,000, for a paltry per-screen average of $1,559. This may have been one of the few times that opening a movie on video-on-demand the same day as in theaters actually hurt the theatrical release instead of enhancing it; after all, given the subject matter,Lovelaceis probably a movie youd rather see in the privacy of your living room than in a public theater.
By contrast, Lake Bells comedyIn a World(which she wrote, directed, produced, and stars in) opened on just three screens but averaged an estimated $23,667 per screen. Drag racing dramaSnake and Mongooseopened on just one screen but earned an estimated $21,000. Woody AllensBlue Jasmineaveraged an estimated $21,205 on 119 screens, and its in its third week of release. (Its earned $6.2 million so far.) And Shailene Woodleys coming-of-age romanceThe Spectacular Nowaveraged a still-spectacular $14,006 on 19 screens, bringing its two-week total to $534,000.