Weekend Wrap-Up: Non-Stop Starts Fast
March 3, 2014
Non-Stop led the way at the box office this weekend and like nearly every film in the top five, it beat expectations. Son of God did so well that it reached second place. Even The LEGO Movie had reason to celebrate, as it hit $200 million over the weekend. This helped the overall box office rise 7% from last weekend reaching $118 million. Meanwhile, this was 8% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2014 has earned $1.65 billion putting it 11% or $163 million ahead of 2013.
Non-Stop continues Liam Neeson's streak of action film hits. It opened in first place with $28.88 million, which is a little better than expectations. Likewise, its reviews recovered and are now at 59% positive. I don't think it will have the legs to reach $100 million, but it should top its $50 million production budget by this time next week and depending on how well it does internationally, it might break even before it reaches the home market.
Son of God opened in second place with $22.60 million, which is on the high end of expectations. It is also very impressive, considering it is just a re-cut of the The Bible mini-series and very likely cost very little to "make". (Wikipedia says it cost $22 million, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was for the full mini-series.) The reviews are a mere 25% positive, although the audience reaction is 81% positive, so the filmmakers clearly knew how please churchgoers.
The LEGO Movie fell to third place with $20.83 million over the weekend for a four-week total of $209.14 million. It reached the $200 million milestone on Saturday, the film's 23rd day of release. This is nowhere near the fastest time to get to that milestone, but it is more impressive due to its release date.
As expected, 3 Days to Kill landed in fourth place; however, it fell farther than expected down 60% to just $4.95 million over the past three days for a total of $20.75 million after ten.
The Monuments Men almost snagged fourth place with $4.94 million over the weekend. Its running tally rose to $65.63 million after four weeks of release, which is almost as much as it cost to make. I don't think it is doing as well internationally, but it isn't a complete mess either.
Pompeii was the only film in the sophomore class to not reach the top five. It fell 58% to just $4.33 million over the weekend for a total of $17.77 million. At this point, it might not reach $25 million domestically, which is a disaster for a film that cost $80 million to make.
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Pompeii, The Lego Movie, The Monuments Men, Non-Stop, Son of God, Liam Neeson