Irish Box Office Report: Apr 25-27 2014

Unsurprisingly we have no change at the top, with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 holding the number 1 spot and earning €264k from Irish audiences in its second week. That’s a solid return and represents a 29% drop week-on-week. This weekend brings the film to €1,176,996 over a 12 day period, or almost €100k per day!

A new entry at 2, and the biggest challenger to Spidey is the first proper summer comedy, is 20th Century Fox’s Nick Cassavetes directed The Other Woman. The film made a respectable €3,617 at each of its 60 locations for a €220k opening weekend. Including previews the film has gathered €314k to date, which is a great return for a rom-com, and places it ahead of Cassavetes’ own The Notebook which earned about as much over its entire run.

Falling another place to 3 is John Michael McDonagh’s Irish drama Calvary. The film saw a shallow 23% drop-off in taking a further €159k from Irish audiences, pushing it over the magic €1m mark. The film has earned a further €1m at the UK box-office, taking its combined earnings for the five countries to almost €2.3m.

Also falling one place to number 4 is 20th Century Fox’s animated sequel Rio 2. The school holidays saw the film’s take increase by 81%, pushing it back up to 6 digits and earning €117k for the weekend. That edges the film closer to the magic million mark as it now stands at €880k after 4 weeks.

Also benefitting from the school holidays and gaining a major bump at 5 is Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted. The weekend’s €64k haul was up 61% on last weekend and saw the film pass the million mark by 2 thousand euro.

Down two places to 6 is Paramount’s big biblical epic, the Darren Arofonsky directed Noah. The film fell by just 26% taking a further €42k from its 47 locations and sailing past the €750k. That’s likely the last landmark for the film, but represents solid business for a film that would’ve been a hard sell for the studio.

Also down two places, but suffering a very slight 8% drop, at 7 is Marvel Studio’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The film picked up another €38k this weekend as it too put a landmark in the rear-view mirror as it took its lifetime earnings to €1.25m.

Up one place from last week, and in its first official release weekend is Wally Pfister’s directorial debut Transcendence. The film increased its takings by €12k to earn €35k. That still represents an underwhelming amount for a film headlined by Johnny Depp, with even the poorly received Dark Shadows making 6 times that total. Perhaps the decision by EFD not to screen the film for critics was a bad one. Even negative publicity is publicity.

An oddity at 9, but an increasingly regular one, is a Met Opera’s cinematic presentation. This time out it is Cosi Fan Tutte, which made a remarkable €32k from just 11 locations.

Holding on for dear life, and rounding out the top ten, at 10 is Neil Burger’s Veronica Roth adaptation Divergent. This weekend’s fall of just 13% saw the film take another €26k and place it within grasp of half a million at the Irish box office.

There’s a couple of big releases this weekend that should challenge Spider-man for the top spot. The most likely of these is Universal Picture’s big summer comedy Bad Neighbours. The film stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as parents of a newborn who are finding that living next door to a frat house is not the easiest. That faces off against the heavily marketed, but not very good Pompeii. The Paul W.S. Anderson (him of Resident Evil fame) directed Roman-era epic stars Game of Thrones actor Kit Harrington in his first leading role. I may well draw an audience to see him, but more likely it will capture the attention of people who love to see things blow up on screen. For kid’s the big release will be the Kellan Lutz voiced 3D animated version of Tarzan. Elsewhere the week’s best film is the limited release Blue Ruin. The film is a revenge thriller centring on a beach bum seeking vengeance on the man that killed his parents.

Rank Title
1 Amazing Spider-Man 2, The
2 Other Woman, The
3 Calvary
4 Rio 2
5 Muppets Most Wanted
6 Noah
7 Captain America: The Winter Soldier
8 Transcendence
9 Cosi Fan Tutte – Met Opera 2014 (Opera)
10 Divergent

Source: Rentrak