Weekend Estimates: Wolverine Growls, Doesn't Howl at Top of Chart

July 28, 2013

The Wolverine will have a very solid, but far from spectacular debut this weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. Its $55 million total will give it the tenth-biggest weekend of the year, and the best for Fox, but it is falling well behind comparable films like World War Z (which opened with $66 million) and Star Trek Into Darkness ($70 million). Good reviews and lessened competition as the Summer season comes to a close will help it a bit, but it looks like $100 million and out for the franchise, unless its $86.1 million international debut turns into a $400 million global run.

The rest of the top 10 is fairly quiet this weekend, with The Heat the top performer among returning wide releases. It's down 26% in its 5th weekend.

Although the studio tentpoles have little news this wekeend, no less than six indie films are worthy of note.

Fruitvale Station moves into 10th place on the chart with a projected $4.65 million from 1,064, which is just enough to beat out the considerably lighter fare offered by The Way Way Back. The latter film is set for $3.3 million and 11th place from 886 theaters.

Blue Jasmine is the standout limited release of the week. In fact, it's the standout limited release of the year so far with a theater average over $100,000 and an opening projected at $612,767 from six venues for Woody Allen's latest.

Less stellar, but still not bad for a film that cost $1.5 million to make, is the $1.535 million opening for The To Do List. This is a film that could yet have a decent run, but its $2,597 average from 591 theaters suggests that it won't be able to hold onto screens in major multiplexes for very long. Good reviews and solid word-of-mouth will give it a chance of holding on in smaller theaters though.

The final indie films delivering impressive returns are The Act of Killing, which will pick up nearly $40,000 this weekend after expanding into 3 theaters. A film with a bigger expansion, but a correspondingly slightly lower average, is Blackfish, which is set for almost $160,000 from 19 theaters for Magnolia.

- Weekend Estimates

Bruce Nash

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, World War Z, The Wolverine, The Heat, The To Do List, Blue Jasmine, The Way Way Back, Fruitvale Station, Blackfish, The Act of Killing, Woody Allen