Weekend box office: Oz The Great and Powerful opens huge
Brad Sturdivant
March 10th, 2013
Some analysts around Hollywood were worried that OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL was going to be this year’s “JOHN CARTER” for Disney. Working with an insanely huge budget estimated between $215 and $225 million, the film has an uphill battle to make back that kind of money. But with international grosses and Blu-ray sales generating more money these days, Disney should have hope that the $70+ million domestic opening at the weekend box office bodes well for the film financially and no one will get fired for greenlighting Oz. I’m surprised by the appeal of the film and I’ve noticed friends of mine that don’t even like movies made their way to theaters to check out OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL. When you attract the non-movie crowd, then that’s a good sign your film is going to be financially successful. The other new movie of the weekend was the Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace revenge thriller DEAD MAN DOWN. It looks like it will slide into third place, which isn’t a great opening, but not bad for the kind of counter-programming it was looking for.
Next week sees the release of THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE, which stars Steve Carell, Jim Carrey and Steve Buscemi. The film got trashed after debuting at the SXSW Film Festival, which doesn’t mean too much in terms of box office success, but without good buzz, I don’t see the film being successful, even with that cast. My guess is that OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL will repeat as #1 next week without much of a challenge. Note: the number below will be updated as they become final.
1. Oz The Great and Powerful $80.3m
2. Jack The Giant Slayer $10m
3. Identity Thief $6.3m
4. Dead Man Down $5.3m
5. Snitch $5.1m
6. 21 And Over $5m
7. Safe Haven $3.8m
8. Silver Linings Playbook $3.7m
9. Escape From Planet Earth $3.2m
10. The Last Exorcism Part II $3.1m
[fbcomments]
