Box Office: Easter For the Birds
Monday, April 25, 2011 at 8:46PM 
Did you stay at home and color eggs, church it up, socialize, or hit the movies this weekend? Or maybe a little of all four? I did the latter two. I was a bit worried when I walked into an empty theater for Water for Elephants (but it did fill halfway up). Here's the top ten.
Easter Weekend Box Office
01 RIO $26.3 (cumulative $80.8)
The birds have now taken over for the bunny.
02 MADEA'S BIG HAPPY FAMILY new $25.0
03 WATER FOR ELEPHANTS new $16.8
04 HOP $12.1 (cumulative $100.2)
05 SCREAM 4 $7.0 (cumulative $31.0)
06 AFRICAN CATS new $6.0
07 SOUL SURFER $5.4 (cumulative $28.5)
08 HANNA $5.2 (cumulative $31.7)
09 INSIDIOUS $5.2 (cumulative $44.0)
10 SOURCE CODE $5.0 (cumulative $44.6)
Obviously Tyler Perry will be making Madea movies till he's in the grave since people never stop showing up once he puts on those big dresses. The debut for Water for Elephants seems worrisome (truth: we always hope that epic period romances do well since like musicals they seem in short dead-genre supply) but they somehow kept their production costs way down so they'll be fine in the long haul. Movie budgets so rarely make visible sense on screen. This one only costs $38 million despite being a handsome period piece with wild animals and three stars? Meanwhile Black Swan costs half of that and looked downrright spectacular while some movies -- most movies actually -- cost more than $38 and they don't look as expensive. Guess it all depends on who the producers are handing the money to, right?
We don't like to neglect the films in limited release so let's check in on how films that have never been in wide are doing. That top five goes like so.
01 WIN WIN $1.1 (cumulative $6.6)
02 ATLAS SHRUGGED PT. 1 $.8 (cumulative $3.0)
Apparently if you savage this one in a review people get pissed. So given the 6% on Rotten Tomatoes there are a lot of pissed people out there. I totally believe this as my Dad is about as conservative as they come and worships Ayn Rand.
03 JANE EYRE $.7 (cumulative $7.8)
04 OF GODS AND MEN $.1 (cumulative $3.2)
05 I AM $.1 (cumulative $.5)
Sadly both Win Win and Jane Eyre which have been quite well received by arthouse auds probably won't expand that much further since they're both slowing down. One hopes that Jane Eyre will stick around until X-Men: Mutant Babies opens and some brave new Fassbender fans get curious. The highest per screen average went to Canada's Oscar nominated INCENDIES which nabbed $18,000ish from each of its screens. Alas, it was only on three screens.
What did you see?
Reader Comments (7)
I got to see Jane Eyre & colored eggs this wknd! Next on my list, finger painting with a certain German-born Irish actor? alright, obviously the latter won't happen, but I can dream, right?
Friday, I saw Rosie the Elephant doing her thing and Saturday I was the only young male in the theatre watching Jane Eyre and the girls were looking at me surprised. I don’t know why. However, it was a fine weekend. But I’m still kinda upset that my friend in UK already saw Winnie The Pooh and Submarine. Even my friend in Australia already saw Natalie Portman and the Hammer God. Summer, please come sooner.
I hope I can enjoy the movie as soon as possible, you know, it is not that easy to get a nice movie like this! I do think it is great!
judging by recent box office results, water for elephants would have done a lot better if the elephants spoke
Saw The Greatest Movie Ever Sold in the am, and then saw the off-broadway play Love Song...which I highly recommend. Greatest Movie was okay, I was hoping for a bit more revelation...and it contained the most distrubing phrase I have heard in awhile..."the rate of cultural decay" when talking about a film's first two opening weeks.
I'm still waiting on when I finish reading "Jane Eyre" to see the movie (or even the Orson Welles version on Netflix).
This weekend I ended up seeing "Ceremony" (which finally opened in my city) and I liked it. Angarano is such an adorable dork/jerk in the film, while Lee Pace has a nice change in the roles he normally plays.
With a 4-day weekend, I was able to catch up on some things I'd been wanting to see:
"Water for Elephants"--Christopher Waltz stole this one...and it's a good thing he did; otherwise, it would have been a pretty limp affair.
"Daydream Nation"--Canadian indie about a teenage girl who falls in with a stoner crowd, and also has an affair with her high school English teacher. So-so at best; I kept flashing back to "Easy A," but the lead actress was no Emma Stone, and the humor wasn't the best.
"The High Cost of Living"--Another Canadian indie, with Zach Braff playing a NYC drug dealer in Montreal who hit and runs a pregnant woman, and then befriends her to salve his conscience. This one wasn't bad; the acting was pretty good, especially Isabelle Blais, who played the pregnant woman.
"Carancho"--Argentina's Oscar candidate last year. Very dark and scuzzy...you almost wanted to take a shower afterwards. Still, it was nice to see Ricardo Darin again.
"Octubre"--Peruvian film about a money lender whose life changes when a baby he fathered with a prostitute is left is his care. I liked this one...quirky with a dry sense of humor and good acting.
In addition to that, I saw the French film "Les Invités de mon père" for a second time (appreciated Karine Viard more this time), and "Certified Copy" for the third time (I think I have a crush on William Shimell).