42 Hits Box Office Homerun
Far outscoring industry expectations, Warner Bros.’ Jackie Robinson biopic 42 broke the baseball-movie barrier, cracking $20 million for more ticket sales than any other sports title during its opening weekend, April 12-14. But Scary Movie 5 underperformed, signaling that interest in the 13-year-old franchise has waned.
42 scored an estimated $27.5 million at the box office, according to boxoffice.com. Brian Helgeland’s drama, which stars relative newcomer Chadwick Boseman as the legendary Brooklyn Dodger and Harrison Ford as General Manager Branch Rickey, batted a thousand with moviegoers. The sports film did attract older and, interestingly, slightly female, with 83 percent of ticket buyers over age 25 and 52 percent women. Monday marked the 66th anniversary of Robinson’s history-making debut.
Scary Movie 5 came in second and grossed on the low end of estimates. The original totaled $157.0 million in 2000, and the fourth film made $90.7 million, but with the smallest debut in the franchise, the fifth installment is unlikely to match any of its predecessors’ total ticket sales. Scary Movie 5, directed by Malcolm D. Lee with appearances by Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan, haunted a young audience that was 75 percent under age 25 and nearly half Latino or African-American.
This Week | Last Week | Movie | Weekend Gross | Cumulative Gross | Weeks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | N/A | 42 | $27.5M | $27.5M | 1 |
2 | N/A | Scary Movie 5 | $14.2M | $14.2M | 1 |
3 | 3 | The Croods | $13.1M | $142.4M | 4 |
4 | 2 | G.I. Joe: Retaliation | $10.9M | $102.5M | 3 |
5 | 1 | Evil Dead | $9.5M | $41.5M | 2 |
6 | 4 | Jurassic Park 3D | $8.7M | $32.0M | 2 |
7 | 5 | Olympus Has Fallen | $7.3M | $81.9M | 4 |
8 | 7 | Oz: The Great and Wonderful | $4.9M | $219.4M | 6 |
9 | 6 | Tyler Perry’s Temptation | $4.5M | $45.4M | 3 |
10 | 8 | The Host | $2.4M | $23.4M | 3 |
Article by: Executive Editor Mark Heckathorn
Editor-in-Chief Mark Heckathorn is a journalist, movie buff and foodie. He oversees DC on Heels editorial operations as well as strategic planning and staff development. Reach him with story ideas or suggestions at dcoheditor (at) gmail (dot) com.