Another week, another new #1 film at the box office. This week Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington’s action/comedy “2 Guns” managed to take down “The Wolverine” with a debuting 27.3 million over the weekend.
The film about a DEA agent and naval intelligence officer on the run from a drug cartel learning that both were undercover got mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, but with the star power of Denzel Washington (Flight, Training Day) and Mark Wahlberg (Pain and Gain,Ted) may have been too much for “The Wolverine” to handle its second weekend.
Speaking of “The Wolverine”, nearly a 60% drop in audience this weekend caused its slip to #2 on the list. This continues the steady pace the film will have to the likes of the lesser grossing X-Men films, but that pace seems to have it peaking out at around 150+ million. Also, the film has already made back its 120 million dollar budget, bringing in 159 million overseas.
The Smurfs 2 debuts in third with 18.2 million. The film, a sequel of the 2011 film about the small, blue cartoon characters, can be considered another summer flop domestically due to its 102 million dollar budget. Also, the original film brought in twice as much money opening weekend as the sequel. Granted the film opened on a Wednesday and brought its total gross to 27.6 million, and has made 52.5 million overseas, still it begs the question, are people getting tired of The Smurfs?
Speaking of getting tired of crap, Grown Ups 2 made another 8.1 million dollars. Guess the old saying is true, a sucker is born every minute.
At least The Heat has managed to stay in the top 10, coming in 9th this week with 5.65 million. Bringing its incredible summer run nearly to the 150 million marker. On a side note the film is also Sandra Bullock’s third highest grossing movie she’s ever made and is on the heels of 2nd place’s “The Proposal” with 163.9 million domestically.
In other surprising news, “The Conjuring” stays in the top 4 this week, bringing in another 13.6 million. Shockingly, with this week it has surpassed another other horror mainstay “Paranormal Activity” (107.9 million total) and is currently 7th on the list of highest grossing horror/supernatural films of all time.
A list shared with such classics as “The Sixth Sense”, “The Exorcist”, and “The Blair Witch Project”. Congrats to everyone involved with “The Conjuring”.
“Despicable Me 2” drops to 5th place this week. To be honest, I’ve nearly run out of statistics and things to say about this film and I don’t want to repeat myself so I guess I’ll just go with it’s a fantastic film, fun for all ages. If you’re in the mood for a good laugh, go see it. You won’t be sorry.
Rounding out the top 10 is “Turbo” in 7th place, the animated feature about a snail that wants to go fast continues to get eaten alive by better animated kids films. “Red 2” in 8th place. To be honest, having it be a summer film was an awful choice for Lionsgate Films, it could have easily been a #1 movie and probably would have made a lot more if it were released earlier in the year (Jan/Feb).
Finally, “Pacific Rim” comes in 10th with 4.5 million. Like “Despicable Me 2”, I can’t say anything new about this movie, it’s great, wish it would have made more money, it didn’t. Still doesn’t mean it’s a kick ass action film.
Next week 4 new big films come to theaters. Matt Damon gets to kick some ass in the sci-fi/action triller “Elysium”, Dane Cook voices an airplane in the Pixar spinoff “Planes”, Jason Sudeikis tries to be funny and Jennifer Aniston is a stripper in the family road trip “We’re the Millers”, and the Percy Jackson franchise tries to make more money by copying what Harry Potter did in “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters”.
Movie Title Weekend $$$ Total Gross (as of 8/4/13)
1- 2 Guns 27.3 M 27.3 M
2- The Wolverine 21.75 M 95 M
3- The Smurfs 2 18.2 M 27.6 M
4- The Conjuring 13.6 M 108.5 M
5- Despicable Me 2 10.3 M 326.6 M
6- Grown Ups 2 8.1 M 116.4 M
7- Turbo 6.4 M 69.4 M
8- Red 2 5.65 M 45.1 M
9- The Heat 4.7 M 149.5 M
10- Pacific Rim 4.5 M 92.9 M