With a steady $20 million opening, director Michael Bay's "Pain & Gain" had no problem finding the top of the charts in the last weekend before the summer movie season, as Tom Cruise's "Oblivion" saw a significant drop and other newcomer "The Big Wedding" completely misfired. It was also another strong weekend for older releases like baseball drama "42," family film "The Croods" and action sequel "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," which all took advantage of a fairly slow weekend for new releases.
Even with some other action movies in the top 10, "Pain & Gain" was still the big winner of the weekend. With a production budget roughly 1/10th of what Michael Bay typically works with, "Pain & Gain" found the top of the charts with $20 million, though a per venue average of $6,103 is a little less than stellar. But considering it cost only $26 million to produce thanks to Bay, Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson all not taking regular salaries, "Pain & Gain" doesn't have to do a tremendous amount of damage at the box office to turn into a quiet success for Paramount.
With the opening of "Pain & Gain," it was somewhat of a tough weekend for Tom Cruise's sci-fi epic "Oblivion," which tumbled nearly 53% from its opening total and doesn't seem to be in line for too much domestic success in the coming weeks. As "Iron Man 3" wins over action audiences, "Oblivion" should continue to see a quick drop and will likely finish well shy of the $100 million domestic benchmark, though overseas numbers are looking good thanks to Cruise's international popularity. "Oblivion" is already up to $198 million worldwide, which is a decent 10-day total for a stand-alone sci-fi film with a production budget of $120 million.
But while "Oblivion" seems to have at least some commercial appeal left, the same can't be said of R-rated comedy "The Big Wedding." Ripped by critics and avoided by its target adult audience, "The Big Wedding" ended up with an opening of only $7.50 million, a very weak total for a movie that hit more than 2,600 theaters during its opening weekend. Even if "Iron Man 3" isn't direct genre competition, the popular franchise should take a sizable portion of the potential audience from "The Big Wedding," leading to a very short and unimpressive stint at the box office.
The same can't be said of "42," though, as the Jackie Robinson biopic continued to have success with audiences around the country to the tune of $10.73 million in third weekend revenue. "42" is now up to a very solid $69 million domestically in its first 17 days, giving it a great start for a $40 million production released in early April. Even if "42" gets lost in the shuffle once the summer blockbuster season starts, it's already one of the highest grossing baseball movies ever and it should finish just behind "A League of their Own," which stands as the most lucrative baseball release to date thanks to a spectacular $107 million in domestic revenue back in 1992.
The weekend was also likely the last time that "Jurassic Park 3D" will make it to the top 10 following a nice little run at the box office. Costing just $10 million to convert to 3D, "Jurassic Park" has brought in $42 million so far in the U.S., putting it on pace to easily beat "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" and finish just behind "Titanic" as the second highest grossing 3D rerelease (excluding animated films). Following the success of "Lincoln" and "Jurassic Park 3D," director Steven Spielberg's next major movie, "Robopocalypse," is slated to hit theaters next April with big expectations.
Next weekend, the summer blockbuster season kicks off in a major way with the release of "Iron Man 3," which should ride the success of "The Avengers" to some eye-popping worldwide figures by the time it's out of theaters. Also on the schedule for May will be Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of "The Great Gatsby," highly anticipated sequel "Star Trek Into Darkness" and M. Night Shyamalan's sci-fi epic "After Earth," starring Will Smith and his son, Jaden.
Early Studio Box Office Estimates for 4/26/13 - 4/28/13 (in millions), [RTT Prediction]:
1) Pain & Gain (Paramount): $20 [$25]
2) Oblivion (Universal): $17.44 [$18]
3) 42 (Warner Brothers): $10.73 [$11]
4) The Big Wedding (Lionsgate): $7.50 [$13]
5) The Croods (Fox): $6.60 [$5.9]
6) G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Paramount): $3.62 [$2.8]
7) Scary Movie 5 (Weinstein/Dimension): $3.46 [$3]
8) Olympus Has Fallen (FilmDistrict): $2.77 [$2.3] 9) The Place Beyond the Pines (Focus): $2.70 [$2.5]
10) Jurassic Park 3D (Universal): $2.31 [$1.9]
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