New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

The plunge comes as we hit the five spot, as no other film earned more than $5 million this weekend. Fifth goes to Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. The Tina Fey comedy was floppish last weekend with an opening frame at $7.5 million, and things didn’t get a lot better this weekend. WTF earned only $4.6 million in its second frame, dropping 38%. The good news for Paramount is that this one cost $35 million to make, and it might get some play overseas as it has a slow rollout internationally over the next few months. The domestic total to date is $14.6 million.

The Perfect Match is a newbie that seemed to get run over by a large truck this weekend. Released by Lionsgate, The Perfect Match is one of those urban rom-coms like The Best Man or Jumping the Broom. Problem is, The Perfect Match finished the weekend with only $4.2 million, a fraction of what those other films earned on opening weekend. Lionsgate chose to release it to only 976 venues, too small for the genre, and this is the result (a similar thing happened with Chris Rock’s Top Five, opening on 979 screens to $6.8 million). No budget data has been released, but once has to assume the cost here is $10 million or less, which will be tough to recoup with this kind of opening.

Seventh goes newcomer The Young Messiah, but with the grouping of films, all of these movies hanging around the $4 million mark could switch positions when actual box office numbers are released. The faith-based Young Messiah earned only $3.4 million this weekend, but these estimates are always tough due to a potentially big turnout on Sunday. The Young Messiah was made by a number of companies, including Chris Columbus’s 1492 Productions. This one is a little different than your usual faith film, as reviews were on the good side of mixed with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 61% fresh, and it also earned an A- Cinemascore. With Easter coming and a possibility of small-scale overseas success, it might have a chance at recouping its $18.5 million budget.

The Brothers Grimsby bellyflops into a horrid eighth this weekend, as the Sasha Baron Cohen flick craters at both the domestic and overseas box office. Ugly is not the word, as Grimsby earns only $3.2 million from 2,235 venues for Sony. Tracking had Grimsby opening to twice this score, but it bottomed out despite the efforts of Cohen to create awareness through the Oscars and via that "audience reacting to the trailer" video. Awareness was high for Grimsby, and may have worked had it been a better film. The 38% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes killed Grimsby, as did the lame trailer and TV campaign.

The result for The Brothers Grimsby puts it in the top 50 worst opening weekend of all-time list. The box office has seen an interesting trend over the last 12 months, with more and more films not just performing poorly, they are setting records for ineptitude. Other star-driven bottom dwellers of late have included Our Brand Is Crisis ($3.2 million, 2,202 venues), Victor Frankenstein ($2.5 million, 2,797 venues), and Rock the Kasbah ($1.5 million, 2,012 venues). If your film blows, people find out fast now. It's harder to fool the movie-going public these days.

Ninth is another flop in Gods of Egypt. It earned only $2.5 million and declined 52%. The Lionsgate flop has earned only $27.3 million against that $140 million budget. Tenth is Risen, the other faith-based film in the top ten. It earned $2.3 million and fell 42%. It has pulled in $32.4 million domestic.

The overall box office has to be extra thankful for its top two this weekend, or things would be dire indeed thanks to the disastrous bottom seven. The top 12 films this weekend earned $120.4 million, basically on par with last year, when Cinderella hosted the ball and the top 12 totaled $121.2 million. Next weekend, the films entering the Batman v Superman meat grinder are The Divergent Series: Allegiant (I’ll take Zootopia to win next weekend), and the latest and greatest faith-based film, Miracles from Heaven.

Top Weekend Box Office for 3/11/16-3/13/16 (Estimates)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Zootopia	Disney	$50,000,000	- 33%	$142,615,000
2	10 Cloverfield Lane	Paramount	$25,200,000	New	$25,200,000
3	Deadpool	Fox	$10,800,000	- 35%	$328,077,000
4	London Has Fallen	Gramercy-	$10,668,000	- 51%	$38,850,000
5	Whiskey Tango Foxtrot	Paramount	$4,600,000	- 38%	$14,572,000
6	The Perfect Match	Lionsgate	$4,200,000	New	$4,200,000
7	The Young Messiah	Focus Features	$3,404,000	New	$3,404,000
8	The Brothers Grimsby	Sony	$3,150,000	New	$3,150,000
9	Gods of Egypt	Lionsgate	$2,500,000	- 52%	$27,350,000
10	Risen	Sony	$2,250,000	- 42%	$32,385,000
11	The Revenant	Fox	$2,000,000	- 41%	$179,143,000
12	Kung Fu Panda 3	Fox	$1,650,000	- 54%	$136,407,000
	Also Opening/Notables
	Eye In the Sky	Bleecker Street	$117,050	New	$117,050
	City of Gold	IFC Films	$64,000	New	$64,000
	Hello, My Name Is Doris	Roadside Attractions	$85,000	New	$85,000
	Marguerite	Cohen Media	$21,723	New	$21,723
	Remember	A24	$20,000	New	$20,000
	River of Grass	Oscilloscope	$3,370	New	$3,370
	Lolo	Filmrise	$3,000	New	$3,000
	The Other Side of the Door	Fox	$555,000	- 54%	$2,165,000
	Knight of Cups	Broad Green Pictures	$90,135	+ 49%	$175,726
	Trapped	Abramorama/roco	$13,172	- 25%	$39,610
	Colliding Dreams	Int'l Film Circuit	$22,000	+ 34%	$45,140
	Eddie the Eagle	Fox	$1,560,000	- 50%	$13,477,000
	The Witch	A24	$974,295	- 61%	$22,883,376
	How to Be Single	New Line Cinema	$955,000	- 55%	$45,140,000
	Star Wars: the Force Awakens	Disney	$1,249,000	- 33%	$930,708,000
	Spotlight	Open Road Films	$957,188	- 46%	$43,213,462
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

Continued:       1       2       3