Irish Box Office Report: May 02-04 2014

As we predicted last week Universal’s summer comedy Bad Neighbours has taken the number 1 spot atop the Irish Box Office charts. The film which stars Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne and Zach Efron as feuding neighbours managed an impressive €294k opening weekend. What makes this figure all the more impressive is that the film opened on Saturday meaning that it was a full days take behind all of the other films in the chart. If Universal had have opened the film on Friday and with the Monday Bank Holiday we could have been looking at a half a million earner here. The film has found favour with audiences, delivering on the laughs if not quite on the plot, so it should continue to perform strongly in the weeks ahead.

Sticking at 2, and showing that comedy is what Irish audiences craved last weekend is the Nick Cassavetes directed The Other Woman. Despite being a female led film that fails the Bechtel test audiences continued to flock to the cinemas, with earnings down just 28%. That saw the film take a further €163k, bringing the lifetime total to a robust €622k.

Dropping two places from the top spot to this weekend’s number 3 is Sony’s comic-book movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Marc Webb’s web-slinging sequel netted another €151k from Irish audiences as it passed the €1.4m mark in Ireland alone. That did represent a 43% drop, but comic-book audiences tend to come front-loaded. Meanwhile the film opened Stateside to a lower than expected $92m, which despite being the 7th highest May opener ever, was behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘s $95m. It’s not all doom and gloom for the film as internationally the film is ahead of the original, having earned over $370m to date. With The Amazing Spider-Man having earned $752.2m in its run Sony will get a good return on its $250m outlay. With two sequels and two spin-offs already in the pipelines we can expect to see a lot more of Spidey in the next few years.

Holding strong, and falling one place to number 4 in the charts, is John Michael McDonagh’s Irish drama Calvary. The film is now in its fourth week and continues to do great business at Irish Box Office, landing another €108k this weekend. That represented a 32% drop and saw the film move out to €1.36m from its home audience. The film is rapidly closing in on the €3m mark between Irish and UK figures.

New at 5 is Paul W.S. Anderson’s swords-and-sandals epic meets disaster film Pompeii. Starring Game of Thrones Kit Harrington the film is a love-story set against the volcanic eruption in the titular town almost 2000 years ago. Opening at 50 locations, the film scored a less than epic €1,532 at each of them, to bring in just €97k. With the film costing $100m to make and recouping just $23m in the US, it was relying on the international figures to break even. So far it will scrape that as it stands at $94m worldwide, but it is considerably short of the $240m that Anderson’s Resident Evil: Retribution earned.

Falling two place to 6 is 20th Century Fox’s animated sequel Rio 2. The film scored €67k this weekend to close in on the €1m mark. Standing at €958k it will make that landmark this weekend, but is unlikely to go much further. The film did reach a landmark in the US as it crossed $100m domestic, bringing it’s worldwide total to $289.1m. That represents a good return for Fox and Blue Sky Animation, but pales in comparison to their other franchise Ice Age, the last of which earned $877m globally. It’s obvious that the studios are aware of what they’ve got as the next big animated film will be a fifth outing of Ice Age, rather than Rio 3.

At 7 is the last of the week’s new entries as the 3D animated version of Tarzan swings in with €63k. Given how well animated films have down this year at the box office this opening weekend is very disappointing. This version of Tarzan sees Kellan Lutz voice the man raised by apes and represents the second Lutz-led property this year to under-perform at the box office after last month’s The Legend of Hercules.

Last week’s number five is this week’s number 8 as Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted dropped 51% to earn €32. Given that the film is out 6 weeks, and that it had already made over €1m in Ireland, this is an impressive return and bodes well for further Muppety adventures.

Down another 2 places this week is Marvel Studio’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The film dropped 52% to take €19k this weekend. That takes the film to €1.29m which lags behind Spidey’s €1.4m receipts to date. It seems that while US audiences preferred their home-grown hero the international audience is more at home with a hero that’s a touch less patriotic.

Last but not least in Darren Arofonsky’s Noah at 10. The film is down 56% in its fifth week, earning just €18k from its 19 locations. Paramount should be satisfied with the €804k that the biblical epic took during its run in the top ten.

Next weekend sees the release of another of the big Irish releases of 2014 as Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank takes centre-stage. The film sees Michael Fassbender adopt a giant head as he plays a band-leader with more than a little of Frank Sidebottom to him. The film also stars local hero and new Star Wars cast-member Domhnall Gleeson, as well as international stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scott McNairy. We are expecting good returns for the film which is offbeat but utterly engaging. The only other release with the potential to take on Bad Neighbours and Frank this week is the Arnold Schwarzenegger starring Sabotage. The film sees Arnie as the leader of a DEA task-force who’s team becomes targets after busting a cartel.

Rank

Title

1

Bad Neighbours

2

Other Woman, The

3

Amazing Spider-Man 2, The

4

Calvary

5

Pompeii

6

Rio 2

7

Tarzan

8

Muppets Most Wanted

9

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

10

Noah

 

Source: Rentrak