After being narrowly pipped to the top spot over the full President's Day weekend, the romantic toon
Gnomeo and Juliet made good as the number one film in America during its third weekend in the charts. After two consecutive low drop percentages (both in the 20% range) the Disney film is maintaining a considerable staying power which is reminiscent of last year's sleeper hit animation How To Train Your Dragon which went on to claim over $200 million domestically after a $43.2 million opening haul. If Gnomeo and Juliet continues to perform as it is now it could easily reach the $150 million mark though it may well struggle in the coming weeks with the upcoming release of Paramount's heavily publicised children's animation Rango. Gnomeo and Juliet is this week's Box Office Success Story of the Week.
New Line's brand new
Owen Wilson &
Jason Sudeikis starring rom-com
Hall Pass led the charts on Friday but succumbed to second place overall in its first weekend in the charts. Hall Pass looks set to be the fifth consecutive Farrelly Brothers film to fail reaching the number one spot for a comedy directing duo who have not had a reasonable hit since the Jim Carrey led Me, Myself and Irene over a decade ago. For a while the filmmakers frat pack shenanigans were all the range resulting in major hits such as Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary but this particular brand of gimmicky humour seems to have long outstayed its welcome as evidenced by the disappointing financial returns of pictures such as Stuck on You and The Heartbreak Kid.
Last weekends number one film
Unknown dropped to third with a 43.1% drop. Headlined by
Liam Neeson, the film has made over $40 million after ten days on release but is still short of similar Neeson Euro-thriller Taken which had made over $50 million by this stage and which had gathered incredibly low drop percentages on its way to a fantastic $145 million haul making it without doubt one of the most surprising box office smashes of the past decade. On the contrary Unknown will be lucky to reach the $100 million mark but with a low $30 million budget this is not too much of a concern.
BOX OFFICE ROUND-UP:
BOX OFFICE FLOP OF THE WEEK DRIVE ANGRYNicolas Cage is the early 2011 contender for Box Office Flop of the Year in the leading man stakes as his latest senseless, action picture
Drive Angry suffered a dismal opening weekend that broke records for being the lowest grossing nationwide release of any 3D picture. 3D ticket sales accounted for 96% of Drive Angry's pathetic $5.1 million opening and the film's attempts to market hot female co-star
Amber Heard appear futile as distributor Summit Entertainment estimated that the majority of the males who attended the film were in the 30-40 age bracket. No doubt Heard could have helped pull in younger male audiences were it not for the movie's unfortunate R Rating though this is still no excuse for the film's horrendous performance. My consensus is that audiences have had their fingers burnt too many times when paying to sit through a dire Nicolas Cage action flick and that there is only so many times they can be fooled by such drivel. Numerous Cage films in the past decade have provided apathy from critics and the general public alike and now he is paying the price for a string of awful pictures.
The King's Speech saw a 16.7% gross increase from last weekend to take its overall tally to $114.5 million. With this past weekend's sum it now boasts the seventh most impressive tenth weekend of all time (a record held by Titanic.) Riding on the back of its recent Best Picture win and with its new PG 13 rating now in place, The King's Speech could remain in the charts for quite some time. Justin Bieber's
Never Say Never also had an excellent week dropping just 30.9% for a $62.7 million total. The film is likely to overhaul the Hannah Montana concert ($65.2 mil) next weekend and should soon eclipse the Michael Jackson: This Is It ($72.0) extravaganza which holds the current record for highest grossing concert movie. The full chart can be seen below. Thanks for reading. 1 3 Gnomeo and Juliet BV $14,213,000 -25.8% 3,037 +23 $4,680 $75,147,000 - 3 2 N Hall Pass WB (NL) $13,420,000 - 2,950 - $4,549 $13,420,000 $36 1 3 1 Unknown WB $12,435,000 -43.1% 3,043 - $4,086 $42,840,000 $30 2 4 4 Just Go With It Sony $11,100,000 -39.9% 3,544 -4 $3,132 $79,355,000 $80 3 5 2 I Am Number Four BV $11,036,000 -43.3% 3,156 +2 $3,497 $37,744,000 $60 2 6 6 Justin Bieber: Never Say Never Par. $9,200,000 -30.9% 2,810 -308 $3,274 $62,776,000 $13 3 7 7 The King's Speech Wein. $7,618,000 +16.7% 2,386 +300 $3,193 $114,509,000 $15 14 8 5 Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son Fox $7,550,000 -53.7% 2,821 - $2,676 $28,574,000 $32 2 9 N Drive Angry Sum. $5,131,000 - 2,290 - $2,241 $5,131,000 - 1 10 8 The Roommate SGem $2,050,000 -47.6% 1,726 -434 $1,188 $35,928,000 $16 4 11 11 True Grit Par. $1,925,000 -20.1% 1,222 -243 $1,575 $167,110,000 $38 10 12 13 The Fighter Par. $1,600,000 +2.1% 668 -91 $2,395 $90,393,000 $25 12