Friday Box Office Analysis
by Tim Briody
September 7, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
[bp:201_]Vin Diesel[/bp]'s third go as Riddick, this time called, well, Riddick, earned $7.3 million on Friday, much more than enough to finally end The Butler's three week reign at the top of the box office. The Pitch Black franchise has never been that successful; the fact that it's getting a third film released theatrically shows you how much Vin Diesel has resurrected his career by returning to the Fast & Furious franchise. For reference, Pitch Black began with a $3.1 million Friday and $11.5 million weekend in February 2000, while 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick opened with $9.9 million and a $24.2 million weekend. The results are not exactly world beating, but enough to take a September weekend. Riddick will win the weekend with $17.5 million.
Holdover Roundup
The Butler did it for three weekends, but it will settle for second this weekend, falling just 34.6% from last weekend to $2.3 million. It continues to inch closer to $100 million with another weekend of $8.1 million.
Last weekend, Instructions Not Included shocked everyone by earning $7.8 million in just 348 theaters. This week, it earned another $1.6 million after expanding to 717 theaters. It should earn another $6 million for the weekend.
Meanwhile, One Direction: This Is Us collapses an astonishing 86.9% from last Friday. Hilariously and predictably front-loaded (its multiplier last weekend was 1.78. No, really.), it will add another $3.2 million this weekend as the British boy band's 15 minutes continue to tick.
Lastly, This is the End was relaunched in over 2,100 theaters to try and push it over the $100 million mark (it was about $3 million short going into the weekend). There was likely minimal marketing push behind the rerelease as it could only manage $585,000 on Friday. $2 million seems about its best case scenario for the weekend.