The weekend box office has been revealed as the R-rated fantasy Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters led a weak field, as newcomers Parker and Movie 43 flopped.
In first place, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters took in an “okay” $19 million, but that $50 million budget and not-so-great B CinemaScore won’t help. With just a 22 from MetaCritic, it’s an ugly weekend leader, as Jeremy Renner in the lead role was likely all stopping the film from a direct to DVD release.
Taking the second slot this weekend was the holdover Mama, which 54% hit from last weekend and hauled in $12.8 million to bring its total domestic gross to an impressive $48 million, a success given the film’s low $15 million budget.
Harvey Weinstein continues his impressive roll-out of Silver Linings Playbook, which dropped just 7% from last weekend and stayed in third place for the weekend with an even $10 million haul. If the film is able to continue this slow and steady drop, we could be looking at a $100 million box office success when all is said and done. Kathryn Bigelow’s hunt for bin Laden film Zero Dark Thirty, meanwhile, took in $9.8 million for a fourth place finish, as the Oscar and controversy buzz has brought the film’s domestic haul to $69 million, which matches that of Silver Linings Playbook.
Finally, in fifth place we see another newcomers, as the Jason Statham-starrer Parker took in $7 million from 2,224 theaters for a rather weak $3,147 per theater average. The only good news for the film is that audiences took to the film rather well, giving it a B+ CinemaScore, although that shouldn’t have too much of an affect on it as it started out too low to really recoup its losses.
Elsewhere, the Peter Farrelly gross-out comedy Movie 43, which stars just about everyone, took in just $5 million and an equally terrible D CinemaScore. The only good news for the film is its $6 million budget and the fact it reportedly took in $8.6 million in Russia, although from the look of it, Relativity had a major P&A budget for this one.
Finally something we couldn’t help but note, as pointed out by Brad Brevet at Rope of Silicon, combine the Rotten Tomatoes scores of the three newcomers (Movie 43 at 5%, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters at 15% and Parker at 37%), you still will have a “rotten” score for those combined films (57%). That right there is why January is the worst month of the year for film.
Next weekend will see the zombie romantic comedy Warm Bodies, which we liked quite a lot, and the Sylvester Stallone actioner Bullet to the Head vie for the top spot of the box office.
Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 earners for the weekend of Jan. 25, 2012:
Weekend: $19 million
Theaters: 3,372
Budget: $50 million
CinemaScore: B
Rotten Tomatoes: 15%
2. Mama – $12.8 million ($48.6 million total)
3. Silver Linings Playbook – $10 million ($69.4 million total)
4. Zero Dark Thirty – $9.8 million ($69.2 million total)
5. Parker – $7 million
6. Django Unchained – $5 million ($146.2 million total)
7. Movie 43 – $5 million
8. Gangster Squad – $4.2 million ($39.6 million total)
9. Broken City – $4 million ($15.2 million total)
10. Les Miserables – $3.9 million ($137.2 million total)