Irish Box Office Report: Mar 6-9 2014

Winning the Best Picture Oscar was not enough to keep Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave in the Top 10 as three new entries hit the charts.

We have a new number 1 as in with a bullet (or arrow or gleaming chest plate) comes Noam Murro’s sequel to Zack Snyder’s swords and sweaty-men epic 300, 300: Rise of An Empire. The film recorded one of the lowest opening at 1 figures of the years so far posting a meagre €194k from its 61 sites, for a passable €3,081 per location. With the expected 40% drop next week, coupled with mixed word-of-mouth, that opening will see the movie barely scrape €500k at the Irish box office.

Last week’s number one, and the surprise story of the year, The Lego Movie drops to number two. The film was barely beaten by 300: Rise of an Empire, falling just €12k short of topping the charts for a fourth consecutive week. The film dropped 47% to take a further €181k this weekend, bringing its lifetime gross to a whopping €2.9m. With no Pixar film out this year that total is going to be hard to beat!

The second new entry in the charts is Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel. The film boasts the most impressive per location average of any film this week, taking a staggering €5,582 at its 22 sites for a €123k opening weekend. We believe that 20th Century Fox missed a trick by not opening film wider as we have witnessed, first-hand, sold-out screenings around the capital. Hopefully the film will expand in its second week, but we cannot know as a request to Fox for information went unanswered.

At four is last week’s number two, the Liam Neeson starring Non-Stop. The film dropped 45% in its second week to take €117k, bringing its total-to-date up to €429k. Those figures are comparable to the fourth week totals for Taken 2, so news of Liam’s return to that franchise is understandable.

The third and last new entry in the Top 10 is John Butler’s Irish comedy The Stag at 5. The film’s €106k opening weekend is solid-to-good for a new Irish comedy, besting Grabbers and Zonad‘s €40k openings, but falling far short of The Guard‘s €500k. Still word-of-mouth and reviews are good for the film which should see next week’s figures hold pretty firm.

Awards season is almost over now with only one film left in the Top 10. Dallas Buyers Club, riding on the coat-tails of two Oscar wins dropped just 1% to take the number 6 spot with €83k. The film has taken €805k to date so likely won’t hit the €1m, but still those are impressive figures for an “issue” movie.

Dropping from 3 to 7 is Universal’s US box office smash-hit comedy Ride Along. Irish audiences don’t seem as keen on the Ice Cube/Kevin Hart banter as our American cousins, with the film down 39% to take just €71k in its second week. Those figures are indicative of the rest-of-the-world numbers, where the film has failed to travel well outside the US.

The animation domination at the box office continues with Mr. Peabody and Sherman and Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy still featuring in the Top 10, at 8 and 10 respectively. Mr. Peabody and Sherman‘s surprising run takes another €52k on route to passing the €1m mark at the Irish box office. Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy has impressed too, taking a further €51k from 61 locations to bring its total up to €529k.

The Book Thief drops from 6 to 9 in its second week, taking a rather low €1,072 per-location despite expanding to 47 sites. The film has grossed €202k and will fall out of the charts next week. This has to be very disappointing for 20th century Fox, we had thought that they’d a potential award winner and box-office hit on their hands.

Next weekend sees the Muppet sequel Muppets Most Wanted have a special three-day pre-release in Irish cinemas to help celebrate the St. Patrick’s weekend. Expect that to dominate.

Source: Rentrak