Carrie was unable to spook the unflappable Gravity at the box office this past weekend, as the hit 3-D space drama easily claimed No. 1 for the third week in a row.
Heading into the weekend, industry projections indicated the films would be in a tight race for the top spot, with each poised to take in between $30 million and $35 million. But only Gravity hit that mark, collecting about $30 million. According to an estimate from distributor Warner Bros., the film starring Sandra Bullock has sold $169 million worth of tickets since its debut Oct. 4.
Carrie fell far short of tracking predictions. The remake of the 1976 horror classic opened with a so-so $16 million - about as much as Columbia Pictures.
Things were even worse for the weekend’s other newcomers. The pricey action film Escape Plan, co-starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, launched with an embarrassing $9.8 million. And practically no one was interested in the story of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, because a drama about him, The Fifth Estate, flopped with $1.7 million.
The new version of Carrie stars Chloe Grace Moretz as a bullied teen who uses special powers to get back at those who have taunted her.
Its subject matter apparently helped the film appeal to a younger female audience last weekend; 56 percent of those in attendance were under 25. Those who saw the movie assigned it an average grade of B-minus, according to market research firm CinemaScore, the worst grade given to any of the weekend’s new wide releases.
Meanwhile, the few who saw Escape Plan were older: 61 percent of the audience was 30 and older. The movie, in which Schwarzenegger and Stallone try to escape from a locked-down prison, received a B-plus CinemaScore.
Though he was a big movie star in the ’80s and ’90s, Schwarzenegger has been unable to reclaim box-office glory in recent years. Escape Plan is the second flop this year for the 66-year-old actor turned governor, after The Last Stand in January. Though he is a part of the successful The Expendables franchise, it seems moviegoers are not interested in seeing The Terminator as a leading man.
The Fifth Estate is a major disappointment for Dream-Works SKG, which had initially hoped the movie might be an awards contender. But when the film was unveiled at the Toronto Film Festival in September, it was met with lukewarm reviews.
In limited release, Steve McQueen’s historical drama 12 Years a Slave debuted in 19 theaters and collected more than $923,000, according to an estimate from distributor Fox Searchlight. That amounts to a strong per-location average of about $49,000.
Searchlight, which financed the $22-million production along with New Regency Pictures, River Road Entertainment and FilmFour, opened it in a mixture of arthouse and urban theaters. The film performed best this past weekend at the Regal Union Square Stadium in New York, followed by the ArcLight Cinema in Hollywood.
In the art houses, the film had an older audience - mostly people over 45, said Frank Rodriguez, Searchlight’s senior vice president of distribution. In the black-skewing theaters, the audience was mixed - an equal amount of people over 40 and under 40.
This weekend, Searchlight will expand 12 Years a Slave to roughly 100 theaters.
MovieStyle, Pages 34 on 10/25/2013