This week's box office battle found swarms of zombies, feisty lady cops, cuddly collegiate monsters, paramilitary armies and indestructible men in Kryptonian bodysuits loudly fighting for the souls of the US moviegoer, while sacrificing their ear drums to the angry cinema gods. As incredible as it sounds, Brad Pitt's Zombie Apocalypse might be the quietest movie in the top five this week. They build the silence into the story and we thank them. Give them a Best Sound Mixing nomination as mark of gratitude, plz.
Yes, I made this title with The Heat's official 'cat font'. Don't judge.
01 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY $46.1 (cum. $171) Review
02 THE HEAT $40 *NEW* GIVEAWAY CONTEST
03 WORLD WAR Z $29.8 (cum. $123.7) Review
04 WHITE HOUSE DOWN $25.7 *NEW*
05 MAN OF STEEL $20.8 (cum. $248.6) Superheroes and National Security
04 THIS IS THE END $8.7 (cum. $74.6)
07 NOW YOU SEE ME $5.5 (cum. $104.6)
08 FAST AND FURIOUS 6 $2.4 (cum. $233.3)
09 STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS $2 (cum. $220.5) The Dumbing Down of Star Trek
10 THE INTERNSHIP $1.4 (cum. $41.7)
11 IRON MAN 3 $1.4 (cum. $405.4) Reviewed
12 THE PURGE $1.2 (cum. $62.7)
13 THE BLING RING $.8 (cum. $4.3)
14 EPIC $.8 (cum. $103)
15 BEFORE MIDNIGHT $.6 (cum. $5.7) 5 Reasons Why...
In wide release: The Heat's $40 million bow makes it the biggest opening ever for Melissa McCarthy and, more impressively, Sandra Bullock who has had a lot of sturdy opening weekends over the past two decades. (ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY CONTEST) Incredibly Iron Man 3 is still hovering near the top ten, and is now the 5th highest grossing movie of this young decade (with The Hunger Games as its next target... just 3 million away).
In limited release: Joss Whedon's quickie Much About About Nothing adaptation crossed the $2 million mark at the box office; The hot arthouse debut was Pedro Almodóvar's I'm So Excited! (ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY CONTEST) which won $100,000 on just five screens. Unfortunately without the starpower of Penélope or Antonio and with lesser reviews than Pedro tends to wins, it's unlikely that this one will do as well as usual for him; And finally Before Midnight is losing theaters rapidly now and when adjusted for ticket price inflation will be the lowest grosser in the series. I was hoping for some sort of crossover miracle but the fanbase hasn't grown or its target audiences is too lazy not to wait for DVD. (le sigh)
WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?