Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
March 8, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The 300 sequel stuns the box office with $17.7 million on Friday. While this isn’t close to the $28.1 million 300 earned on this weekend seven(!) years ago, that’s still well ahead of most projections. Despite not starring Gerard Butler’s abs, the action movie had franchise recognition that none of this year’s other action films had and the unique style that powered the opening of the original, which set it apart from this year’s other action flops. Expect some front loading, but Rise of an Empire is still good for an impressive $44.2 million weekend.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman
Family option Mr. Peabody and Sherman starts with $8 million on Friday, which is pretty good. Considering the sell job needed to get kids interested in a cartoon older than most of their parents that hasn’t aired on television in a long time, the marketing clearly worked well. It will hold up well over the rest of the weekend, and a $24.6 million weekend is a very good start to making back its reported $145 million cost.
Notable Holdovers
Non-Stop drops 53% from last weekend to $4.7 million, which is standard for the [bp:763_]Liam Neeson[/bp]: Asskicker genre. A second weekend of $14.3 million gives it a solid third place for the weekend.
Son of God collapses 72% to $2.7 million, which is entirely predictable since most of its built-in audience showed up last weekend. Give it a second weekend of $8 million.
Finally, the Oscars are rarely relevant to the box office but Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave reappears in the top ten with $585,000 on Friday, up 156% from last weekend. It’s been a relative non factor at the box office for the entirety of its existence (it’s only earned $51.5 million to date and hadn't been in the top ten since November) but it’s the only notable Oscar bump this time around. Look for just under $2 million on the weekend.