1. House at the End of the Street- $13M
In what is basically a three-way battle for numero uno, right now it looks like Jennifer Lawrence has continued her hot streak by pushing the forgettable House at the End of the Street to a share of the top spot. Overall the grosses are kinda weak, and since horror movies tend to burn out quick, who knows how long this will hang around. Still, the film cost practically nothing to make and was sold almost entirely on Lawrence's name alone. Nobody turned out to see Elisabeth Shue as awesome as she is.
2. End of Watch- $13M
For all the gritty tales of cop corruption that Ayer has written or directed, only Training Day was worth much of anything in terms of box office. Street Kings ultimately did ok at about $26M, but that should now be surpassed by End of Watch, which Ayer produced for a minimal $7M budget. It should ride a wave of strong critical buzz, including an A- CinemaScore, to a decent 2nd week hold.
3. Trouble with the Curve - $12.7M
Is it possible that Clint Eastwood's empty chair antics had people running in the opposite direction from a rare on-screen performance? Eh, probably not. More likely it was a combination of heavy competition as there were more films this week than at any point in the year, and the fact that baseball movies tend to not perform all that well. Add to it that Eastwood wasn't behind the camera for this one, and that audiences may have been burned out on the sport after Moneyball, and it makes for a lukewarm opening weekend like this. Ok, the chair thing couldn't have helped.
4. Finding Nemo 3D- $9.4M/$30M
5. Resident Evil: Retribution- $6.7M/$33.46M
As we've often said, American audiences don't give two craps about Resident Evil, and this one is looking like it may have the softest domestic gross yet. But on the foreign market it's already over $50M and will likely keep that pace for a few weeks.
6. Dredd - $6.3M
Predictably, Dredd opens to weak business, fitting for a dead serious, uber-violent film that caters only to a very specific action audience. Critical reviews have been fantastic, though, and it's possible Dredd may hang around for awhile sapping dollars away from the similar Resident Evil: Retribution. Overall it will likely go down as a cult favorite that does gangbusters on the DVD/Blu-Ray market.
7. The Master- $5M/$6.05M
Opening to record breaking art house numbers last week, The Master expanded to 788 theaters and maintains a high per site average at over $6300. Not bad for a film that couldn't be less marketable, and it's largely riding a wave of Oscar buzz for director P.T. Anderson and Joaquin Phoenix.
8. The Possession- $2.6M/$45.65M
9. Lawless- $2.3M/$34.5M
10. ParaNorman- $2.29/$52.5M
