In the past there has been surprisingly little attempt on Hollywood's behalf to capitalise on the Easter spirit with anything other than religious bait but that could be subject to change now with Hop, the latest live action animation release, featuring the Easter Bunny in the principle role, overtaking Rango to score the highest opening weekend sum of 2011 thus far with a $38.1 million three day haul. With Easter coming at a later date this year (April 24th) Hop appears to have been released at an opportune time as it should hold strong throughout the holiday period. The fact that the film has performed relatively poorly overseas proves that the key selling point of Hop is that it exploited a supremely popular Americanised character in what otherwise felt like another derivative live action/animated film. Universal's corporate connection with NBC also proved advantageous with big promotional ads for Hop flashing across the bottom of the screen as the station aired its various programmes last month. The film took a paltry $7 million from twenty six countries in the foreign market meaning that it only just made the top five in the overseas charts in a performance that Universal blamed on the European weather (yes that excuse still gets used!) Regardless of its international disappointment however Hop made a triumphant domestic start and will most likely have already made a worldwide profit by this time next week. Duncan Jones' first commercial film Source Code did decent business with a $15 million opening as it found large appeal amongst adults with 64% of the tickets being accounted for by people over the age of thirty. The film struggled however with a convoluted marketing campaign that focused too much on the gimmick as opposed to trying to capture the excitement of the action and a reason to root for the characters. Source Code could hold very well over the coming weeks though given that it is getting very good reviews and the fact that its performance over the weekend was very even over each three days meaning that it looks likely to be a one of those pictures which keeps taking small chunks of money for a rather large period of time. With a production budget of $32 million, Source Code may finally be the Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle that makes a reasonable domestic profit. Although he has been given ample lead Hollywood roles in the past decade the fact remains that Gyllenhaal is just not much of a box office draw. BOX OFFICE SUCCESS STORY OF THE WEEK:A dark, striking poster and an effectively creepy trailer which was cleverly edited to detract from the film's low budget saw Insidious exceed expectations as it opened in third with a $13.5 million haul. The film was made for less than $2 million but was brilliantly marketed by new studio FilmDistrict and was aided by the luxury of being associated with previous horror hits Paranormal Activity and Saw. Co-distributor head Bob Berney had the following to say about his company's debut film success:
For a new company to have the first film be a hit shows exhibitors that were doing what we promiseddelivering wide release films backed by a substantial marketing budget,
Most horror films in this vein die down substantially in the weeks that follow but that won't be a problem for this picture which managed to succeed in spite of its lower level stars in Patrick Wilson and Rose Bryne. Its been proven time and time again however that horror sells on its subject as opposed to its stars. BOX OFFICE FLOP OF THE WEEK:Last week Warner Brothers president Jeff Goldstein insisted that the bad reviews surrounding Zack Snyder's latest offering Sucker Punch would have little impact on the film's gross in the weeks to come after concerns were raised over its hugely disappointing $19 million opening weekend haul. Just one week later however and Sucker Punch has suffered a substantial 68% fall in gross bringing its total to a shade under $30 million after ten days on release which is over $50 million short of the $82 million domestic budget that it will be lucky to even halve. The lesson being learnt then is perhaps that films can't be sold on hot girls and guns alone. Although casual audiences might be easier to please than the ardent film buff, it is still unwise to think that a picture can be sold solely on its superficial qualities and Warner Brothers will do well to keep this in mind the next time they attempt to market a more niche concept. ROUND-UP: Last weekend's chart-topper Diary of a Wimpy Kid tumbled to fourth with a 57% drop in gross. Its total now stands at $38.3 million after ten days on release. Although it opened much better than the first installment its drop has been heavier and the sequel might now have a task on its hands to domestically outgross the original which finished its run with $64 million stateside. Limitless and The Lincoln Lawyer shared success story honours last week and they also performed admirably in their third weekend in the charts with Limitless dropping 37.6% for a $55.6 million total and The Lincoln Lawyer dropping 34% to fall just short of its $40 million production budget. With a number of kids titles, fanboy films and action pictures currently on release, Limitless and The Lincoln Lawyer are both succeeding in attracting older audience members. Rango tumbled quite heavily this week dropping 53% in a fall that was no doubt assisted by Hop eating into the film's target audience. There was some good news however as Rango launched past the $200 million mark worldwide to join the group of 445 feature films which have achieved this goal throughout the history of cinema. 243 of these films also belong in the 300 million dollar club although Rango looks highly unlikely to join them especially with another high profile animation in Rio being released in the middle of April. Overall business was down heavily again with the weekend box office dropping 28% from last years numbers. Hop's opening weekend sum also paled in comparison to the two previous April chart winning openers with Clash of the Titans grossing $61.2 million last year and Fast and Furious making over $70 million years the year before it. The consistent drop in numbers is causing an increased sense of studio panic as we head ever closer towards the crucial summer season. This weekend's chart in full can be seen below courtesy of Box Office Mojo. Thanks for reading. TW LW Title Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week # 1 N Hop Uni. $38,118,000 - 3,579 - $10,650 $38,118,000 $63 1 2 N Source Code Sum. $15,053,000 - 2,961 - $5,084 $15,053,000 $32 1 3 N Insidious FD $13,496,000 - 2,408 - $5,605 $13,496,000 - 1 4 1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Fox $10,200,000 -57.1% 3,169 +2 $3,219 $38,355,000 $21 2 5 3 Limitless Rela. $9,402,000 -37.6% 2,838 +33 $3,313 $55,604,000 $27 3 6 4 The Lincoln Lawyer LGF $7,050,000 -34.4% 2,707 - $2,604 $39,637,000 $40 3 7 2 Sucker Punch WB $6,085,000 -68.1% 3,033 - $2,006 $29,876,000 $82 2 8 5 Rango Par. $4,560,000 -53.3% 3,134 -511 $1,455 $113,783,000 $135 5 9 6 Paul Uni. $4,335,000 -44.8% 2,550 -256 $1,700 $31,934,000 $40 3 10 7 Battle: Los Angeles Sony $3,500,000 -53.8% 2,263 -855 $1,547 $78,466,000 $70 4 11 9 The Adjustment Bureau Uni. $2,204,000 -48.6% 1,525 -757 $1,445 $58,592,000 $50.2 5 12 8 Red Riding Hood WB $1,815,000 -57.9% 1,788 -927 $1,015 $35,631,000 $42 4