Box office estimates are in for the weekend of February 6th-8th, 2015.
#1- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water:
This weekend is like magic for animated movies. This same timeframe last year, The Lego Movie had its $69M opening. Although ‘SpongeBob’ wasn’t able to reach that level or success, it still had an absolutely stellar $56M debut- some $20M higher than tracking. Chock this up to an aggressive- if not somewhat misleading- marketing campaign, a still high level of fanfare among younger audiences, nostalgia in the somewhat older crowds, and unappealing opening weekend competition. What’s most astounding here is that the sequel was able to open $24M higher than the original SpongeBob SquarePants Movie more than 10 years ago- a nearly unheard of feat!
#2- American Sniper:
The little yellow sponge and co. couldn’t keep the Bradley Cooper-Clint Eastwood war pic down. Though it was knocked from it’s first place pedestal, the pic still had a spectacular hold- big shocker there- for a $24.1M weekend to bring it’s current total to $282.2M. Since this movie technically opened in 2014 in limited release, it’s looking like it will take away the title of ‘Highest Grossing Domestic Release of 2014’ from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.
#3- Jupiter Ascending:
Can anyone else hear the sound of hundreds of millions of dollars going down the drain? That’s right, on a budget of $176M- before marketing- the Wachowski’s latest sci-fi epic opened to only $19M in its first weekend. I guess the only cushion to this blow is that everyone saw it coming. Mark this up as the third consecutive failure for the brother-sister duo at the helm of a film. I can’t see this doing any real damage to the stars (Tatum, Kunis, and, well, be somewhat less expectant of that Oscar win Redmayne) but don’t expect the Wachowski’s to receive such a massive budget again anytime soon.
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#4- Seventh Son:
And that’s followed up by another bomb as well. The long delayed fantasy pic staring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore opened to a paltry $7.1M. The only saving grace here, as minor as it is, is the comparatively smaller budget around $95M. With this, and Jupiter Ascending as well, the pics are going to have to do some serious money making overseas.
#5- Paddington:
Even with direct competition from ‘SpongeBob 2,’ the fuzzy CGI bear had a strong hold to bring in $5.3M this weekend for a $57.3M total. I’ve said it a million times but this really is a solid stateside result for a pic that’s expected to make the bulk of its money overseas.
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#6- Project Almanac: $5.3M weekend
$15.7M total
#7- The Imitations Game: $4.8M weekend
$74.7M total
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#8- The Wedding Ringer: $4.8M weekend
$55.1M total
#9- Black or White: $4.5M weekend
$13.1M total
#10- The Boy Next Door: $4.1M weekend
$30.8M total
pic: http://cdn.wegotthiscovered.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Spongebob-Sponge-Out-Of-Water-Trailer-5.jpg
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