Irish Box Office Report: Feb 28-Mar 2 2014

Frozen may have won 2 Oscars and crossed a billion dollars at the global box-office but in its thirteenth week of release it has fallen out of the Irish Box Office Top Ten. Never fear though as animation is still well-represented with 3 positions on our chart.

Holding strong at number one is The Lego Movie. Now that mid-term break is over for schoolchildren the film has dropped of a whopping 52%, but the film still managed to earn €340k in its third full weekend. Its 63 locations contributed a seriously impressive €5,238 each bringing the film’s lifetime earnings to €2.6m in Ireland alone. In the US the film has earned over $200m, making it the biggest film of 2014 so far.

After no new films opened last weekend in the Top Ten, for the first time in 7 years, this weekend sees normality restored with new entries at 2 and 3. At 2 it’s the Liam Neeson starring Non-Stop, which sees the Irish star play a US Air Marshall who needs to find an unknown murderer at 40,000ft. Critically reaction has not been favourable, but that has not stopped audiences seeking out a bit of escapist action over the weekend. The film made €3,539 at its 59 locations for a cumulative €212k opening weekend. That’s on-par with Taken 2 territory in terms of box-office, and it gives Neeson the 1 and 2 spots in the country as he provides a voice in The Lego Movie also.

At 3 is another new opener this week, the US box-office sensation Ride Along. The comedy film, which stars Kevin Hart and Ice Cube as police officers, has made over $127m in the US, but Irish audiences appear harder to please as the film took almost half the box office of Non-Stop earning €117k from the same number of locations.

Back in the world of animation Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy drops 42% and one place to number 4 in the charts. Like The Lego Movie the film suffered the post-mid-term drop-off, but still made another €86k to bring its lifetime total to €470k. Likewise 20th Century Fox’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman had a more significant 51% decline while dropping 5 places to number 7. The film’s €77k is enough to bring the film to a €998k total as of Sunday. Given that it earned on average €26k per day it’s safe to say that Mr. Peabody and Sherman became €1m film yesterday.

At number 5 Dallas Buyers Club continues to held steady in the charts, picking up a further €82k while dropping just 18%. With McConaughey and Leto both nabbing Oscars at the weekend expect the film to hold on for at least another week or two. The two other Academy Awards nominees in the top ten, The Wolf of Wall Street at 9 and 12 Years a Slave at 10 had 35% and 36% drops respectively earning €39K and €25k. 12 Years a Slave picked up Best Picture at the Oscars so it should see a minor bump next week.

The third and final new opener to feature in our top ten is Brian Percival’s The Book Thief at 6. The film is based on the best-selling novel by Markus Zusak and focuses on a young girl’s attempts to save books from the Nazis. Philip here at Scannain hated the film, and audiences don’t seem to have taken it to heart either. The film opened last Wednesday so has a 5 day cumulative of €105k based off 45 locations. The per location average of €1,681 will not be sufficient to see cinema chains hold onto the film for long so if you want to catch The Book Thief you’d better be quick.

Finally taking the number 8 spot is George Clooney’s The Monument’s Men. The film dropped 56% to take €41k in its third weekend, based on an average €868 per location. The title is still available in 43 locations but 300: Rise of an Empire, Grand Budapest Hotel and Irish comedy The Stag will be gunning for it come March 7th.

Source: Rentrak