Clint Eastwood's 'Trouble with the Curve' trails close behind 'Watch' and House' with a solid opening, while Karl Urban's 'Dredd' becomes a bomb despite its strong reviews.
- September 24, 2012
AceShowbiz -
Another box office slow weekend in September continues as four newcomers enter the chart with none of them surpassing the $20 million gross. Jake Gyllenhaal's gritty cop drama "End of Watch" and Jennifer Lawrence's thriller "House at the End of the Street" are collecting $13.1 million and $12.2 million respectively on their first weekend.
Receiving an "A-" CinemaScore, "End of Watch" attracts to Hispanic moviegoers who make up 32|percent| of the ticket buyers. 64|percent| of the moviegoers are dominated by audience over the age of 25. "We always knew we were going to outperform expectations, and I believe the film will have long legs," Open Road's Tom Ortenberg says of the film's opening result.
Meanwhile, "House" receives a "B" CinemaScore with 70|percent| of the moviegoers being under the age of 25. Relativity Media President of Distribution Kyle Davies gushes, "Jennifer Lawrence is certainly a star among this demo."
Trailing close behind "End of Watch" and "House" is another newcomer, Clint Eastwood and Justin Timberlake's "Trouble with the Curve". The baseball drama takes in $12.1 million, and Warner Bros. Pictures believes the result is not affected by Eastwood's much-talked-about "Empty Chair" speech at recent RNC.
"It absolutely had no bearing whatsoever. As a matter of fact, it may have helped," says Warners' President of Domestiv Distribution Dan Fellman. He stresses that the movie also performs well in Democratic markets such as New York City and Boston.
Landing on the fourth and fifth places respectively are the 3D re-release of "Finding Nemo" with $9.6 million, and last week's champion "Resident Evil: Retribution" with $6.7 million. After two weeks of playing Stateside, the fish tale animation grosses a total cume of $29.9 million, while the video game-adapted actioner bags a total gross of $33.4 million.
On the other hand, "Dredd" opens to a disappointing result despite the fact that the film receives strong reviews and positive early buzz. The comic-adapted brutal film starring Karl Urban takes in only $6.2 million to secure the sixth place.
On the specialty box office, Emma Watson's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" performs strong by grabbing $228,359 from four theaters in N.Y. and Los Angeles for a solid screen average of $61,000. The coming of age drama will expand into wide release next week.
Top Ten Movies at Box Office for September 21-23:
