A shrewd marketing campaign propelled The Purge to a massive opening this weekend. The Ethan Hawke thriller, which cost only $3 million to make, took in $36.3 million (well above my generous $24.9M projection). The effective trailers clearly got audiences to the multiplex, but with a weak C Cinemascore grade, expect The Purge to experience a healthy decline next weekend.
Holdovers Fast and Furious 6 and Now You See Me both held up better than I predicted. Fast 6 was second with $19.8 million (my prediction: $16.4M) and Now You See Me was third with $19.5 million (my prediction: $15.8M).
Opening at fourth was the Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn comedy The Internship with a just OK $18.1 million. I predicted a little higher at $20.7M. It’s not surprising that Internship posted rather weak numbers with its unfunny trailers. This will be no Wedding Crashers for sure.
A small weekend to weekend decline helped the animated Epic stay in the top five with a $12.1 million gross. I incorrectly had After Earth being fifth with $9.5 million. It actually grossed $11.2 million, but that was only good enough for seventh place.
Tonight on the blog – I will make my projection for a little flick called Man of Steel. Tomorrow – my projection for the all-star comedy This is the End. Stay tuned!
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