This weekend, Clint Eastwood’s runaway blockbuster and two new action films were no match for the animated comedy The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water which rocketed to number one in North America with a spectacular debut of an estimated $56M. It was the second largest opening weekend ever for an animated film in February behind only The LEGO Movie‘s $69.1M from this same frame last year. With the Presidents Day holiday coming up next week plus many schools closing for winter breaks later this month, the road ahead looks promising for SpongeBob. The PG-rated project cost $74M to produce.
Competition was not tough. The only film to succeed with families this year has been Paddington, which is old now, and the last major animated film was Thanksgiving’s Penguins of Madagascar, which performed poorly. In fact, SpongeBob opened better than nine of the last ten toons from DreamWorks Animation. Since Baymax hit theaters three months ago, there has not been a single toon that audiences were truly excited for.
Following its three-week reign, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper dropped to second but still posted a sensational hold dipping only 21% to an estimated $24.2M. Cume to date is now a staggering $282.3M for Sniper, which has just surpassed The Matrix Reloaded to become the second highest grossing R-rated film of all-time behind only The Passion of the Christ. The Bradley Cooper vehicle has also now grossed more than all the other Best Picture Oscar nominees combined. Making it to the $350M neighborhood seems likely.
The latest big-budget flop from the Wachowski siblings Jupiter Ascending crashed and burned this weekend opening to just $19M, according to estimates, taking third place. Costing over $175M to produce, the sci-fi action pic averaged $5,973 from 3,181 sites and had help from higher 3D and IMAX ticket prices. Recent big-budget action flops like After Earth, John Carter, Battleship, and The Lone Ranger all opened better than Jupiter.
This was the third consecutive time the Wachowskis were given a huge bag of cash to make an effects-driven action film which ultimately was rejected by audiences. Following 2003’s Matrix sequels, they had Speed Racer in 2008 and Cloud Atlas in 2012. All films were from Warner Bros. These last three duds look to end up with combined domestic grosses of only about $115M while having combined budgets of over $400M with much more on top of that for marketing. International grosses help, of course, but these are three money-losing ventures in a row. It will be interesting to see if the studio continues to do business with the sibling filmmakers any more.
Another new effects-heavy action epic rejected by moviegoers followed in fourth place. The historical adventure Seventh Son bowed to just $7.1M, according to estimates, for a dreary $2,470 average from a wide 2,875 locations. With an estimated production cost of $95M, the Universal release was utterly rejected by domestic audiences. Horrendous reviews did not help the PG-13 pic, nor did slotting the much-delayed film against another effects-driven action offering. Studio research showed that the few who did turn out came from Jupiter‘s demo — 61% male and 53% over 30.
Despite the arrival of Squidward and pals, the family pic Paddington held up well dropping 35% to an estimated $5.4M raising the cume up to $57.3M for The Weinstein Co. Paramount’s low-cost Project Almanac dropped 36% from Super Bowl weekend to an estimated $5.3M. The $12M-budgeted pic from producer Michael Bay looks headed for a $25M finish.
Off a scant 3%, The Imitation Game continued to cash in on Oscar nominations and collected an estimated $4.9M for a $74.7M total to date for The Weinstein Co. This one has no real expectation of actually winning the biggest prizes, but is using awards attention to cash in at the box office from adults wanting to see high profile contenders with the Academy’s seal of approval. Close behind was The Wedding Ringer with an estimated $4.8M, down just 16%, with a $55.1M sum for Sony.
Falling 27% in its second weekend was Kevin Costner’s Black or White with an estimated $4.5M and a weak $13.1M overall for Relativity. Universal’s JLo thriller The Boy Next Door rounded out the top ten with an estimated $4.1M, down 33%, and a $30.9M cume.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $135.3M which was up 2% from last year when The LEGO Movie opened at number one with $69.1M; and up a sizable 64% from 2013 when Identity Thief debuted on top with $34.6M.
