"Jack the Giant Slayer" slew the rest of the films at the box office for the weekend of March 1-3, it was announced on Sunday.
All is not good news for "Jack the Giant Slayer," though. While it slew the box office in terms of ending up in the top position, with $28 million, far ahead of any other movie, it has a long way to go if it wants to become profitable. The film had an estimated budget of $195 million.
If anyone wants to recall another huge budgeted debacle, 2012's "John Carter of Mars" comes to mind. It had a budget of $250 million, and debuted almost exactly a year ago.
With that, "Jack the Giant Slayer" stands atop the box office, but still stands small, not tall, as 2013's first big flop. Bryan Singer has to hope his upcoming "X-Men: Days of Future Past" does better (and it should), but he has an out for this film. D. J. Caruso was first signed to direct the film; Singer was brought in later to replace him and Singer was also forced to hire Christopher McQuarrie to rewrite the script.
Meanwhile, the Jason Bateman - Melissa McCarthy continues to be strong. The comedy earned $9.7 million for the weekend, and has now topped $100 million, sitting at $107.4 million after four weeks.
Two new films, "21 and Over" and "The Last Exorcism, Part II" slotted in at $9 million and $8 million, respectively. Both were disappointing totals. Relativity Media had hoped "21 & Over" would duplicate replicate the success of last year's R-rated party flick "Project X." "The Last Exorcism, Part II" also disappointed, as its first weekend total was nowhere near the original's $20.4 million opening.
Closing out the top five was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's action film "Snitch," which debuted in second place last week. It took in $7.7 million this weekend for a domestic total of $24.4 million after two weeks.
We'll see what happens next week. The box office should rebound with the release of Oz: The Great and Powerful," which is expected to launch with at least $75 million and dominate the market.
The top 10 movies are listed below (LW = last week's ranking):
- (N), "Jack the Giant Killer"
- (1 LW), "Identity Thief," four weeks
- (N), "21 & Over"
- (N), "The Last Exorcism, Part II"
- (2 LW) "Snitch"
- (3 LW), "Escape from Planet Earth," $6.7 million, $43.2 million overall, three weeks
- (4 LW), "Safe Haven, $6.3 million," $57.1 million overall, three weeks
- (7 LW), "Silver Linings Playbook," $5.9 million, $115.5 million overall, 16 weeks
- (8 LW), "A Good Day to Die Hard," $4.5 million, $59.6 million overall three weeks
- (6 LW), "Dark Skies," $3.6 million, $13.5 million overall, two weeks
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