CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Box Office News: Bradley Cooper’s ‘Limitless’ Lands Weak Top Spot
CHICAGO – With the NCAA tournament distracting the nation’s attention and a lackluster group of new options at the multiplex, Bradley Cooper’s “Limitless” climbed to the top of a very weak top ten for the weekend of Mar. 17-19, 2011 with only $19 million. New films from Matthew McConaughey (“The Lincoln Lawyer”) and Simon Pegg (“Paul”) disappointed even more.
Limitless Photo credit: Relativity Media |
When is a number one opening still disappointing? When it can’t break $20 million. To be fair, “Limitless” was a production of a new company called Relativity Media and it’s arguably the first time that Cooper had to carry a film this completely and so producers are probably happy with a $19 million three-day gross. Kyle Davies, President of Theatrical Distribution for Relativity, was happy, telling Hollywood Reporter, “Bradley Cooper is a movie star, while Robert De Niro is an icon. You add these stars to a film that has a very unique take on the traditional thriller genre, and Limitless became a movie for everyone.” The trade is reporting that the film only cost $30 million, meaning it’s definitely a hit when it comes to the bottom line.
As for the other new releases, “The Lincoln Lawyer” and “Paul” were neck-and-neck, grossing $13.4 million and $13.2 million, respectively. Both films (and “Limitless”) scored well in CinemaScore, which means holdover could be strong. “Lincoln Lawyer” even increased Friday-to-Saturday, indicating building interest and potential word-of-mouth. Strong reviews overall could have been a factor there as well and the film should hold strong.
Neither of those two movies could best holdovers “Rango” and “Battle: Los Angeles,” which grossed $15.3 million and $14.6 million, respectively. The cartoon fell a very respectable 32%, as family films often decline at a slower rate than other fare, while the horrendous “Battle” dropped a deserving 58%.
The rest of the top ten were filled out by “Red Riding Hood” ($7.3 million, $26 million total), “The Adjustment Bureau” ($5.9 million, $48.8 million total), “Mars Needs Moms” ($5.3 million, $15.4 million total), “Beastly” ($3.2 million, $22.2 million total), and “Hall Pass” ($2.6 million, $39.6 million total).
Overall, business was down 10% from last year (although “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland” boosted last year’s first quarter immensely above average).
Next week sees the release of two very different wide releases — “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules” and “Sucker Punch”.
By BRIAN TALLERICO |