As predicted, it was Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg atop the box office this weekend with 2 Guns. The pic earned a decent $27.4 million in its debut, just shy of my $28.9M projection. As you can see, this was right in line with most estimates, including my own.
It was The Smurfs 2 that was this weekend’s disappointment. The sequel came in below expectations, with $18.2 million over the Friday-to-Sunday portion of the weekend and $27.8 million since its Wednesday opening. That is well below my projections of $25.7M over the traditional weekend and $38.2M for the five-day. Family audiences may have just been overwhelmed by the volume of titles catering to them over the past couple of months and many decided to sit this one out.
The disappointing Smurfs performance allowed The Wolverine to come in second. Hugh Jackman’s superhero pic made $21.7 million in its sophomore frame, below my $24M estimate. Rounding out the top five, The Conjuring held up slightly better than my projection with $13.7 million (I said $12.4M) and Despicable Me 2 was fifth with $10.4 million (on target with my $10.3M estimate).
Stay tuned for plenty of projections for next weekend’s openings on the blog tonight as Elysium, We’re the Millers, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and Planes all debut.
All My Life... I Wanted To Be A Blogster 