There was a surprise in store at the US box office this weekend as DreamWorks’ time travelling ‘toon Mr. Peabody & Sherman leapt to the top of the charts. And that’s despite launching in second place last week, when it was pipped to the post by 300: Rise Of An Empire.
Given the negative reaction from the company’s shareholders to its apparently soft opening, we wonder what the bean counters and stock traders will make of the movie’s second weekend, which saw it drop 34% and yet score top place with $21.2 million. Perhaps they’ll chalk it up to a relatively quiet weekend in American cinemas, with Rise Of An Empire trading places with Peabody, losing 57% of its share from last weekend and earning $19.1 million.
Aaron Paul and** Need For Speed** appear to have stalled in the garage, though the game-based film did manage to find $17.8 million wedged between its front seats for a third-place start. But even with a relatively thrifty $66 million budget, that’s not a great launch for what was hoped would be the start of a new franchise, even if it is doing better elsewhere. It pushed Non-Stop down to fourth with $10.6 million while Tyler Perry’s latest, The Single Moms Club, didn’t seem to attract much interest from his loyal following. It debuted in fifth with $8.3 million.
The Lego Movie fell slightly this weekend, down to sixth place with $7.7 million and more than $236 million in total in the States alone. With the sequel scoring a director, Warners is already confident in this particular franchise. Biblical pic **Son Of God **still had little miraculous luck, slipping to seventh with $5.4 million. Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, meanwhile, took full advantage of its barnstorming platform start and rocketed into the top 10 on waves of good word of mouth, adding $3.6 million from a boosted screen count to become the director’s most successful opening ever. It’s potentially on track to become his biggest hit, too.
Frozen was down to one place, falling to ninth as it arrived on digital formats and prepares to launch on Blu-ray. It still made $2.1 million from cinemas, and may only leave the top ten next week when it’s available for families to own at home. At tenth, the Kickstarted Veronica Mars movie earned an impressive $2 million, which isn’t bad even considering its 291-screen launch when you factor in that many backers were provided with a digital copy of the movie. Still, it remains it be seen whether it’ll hit the “magic number” Warners has set to generate a sequel.
To travel around the full chart listings, head to Box Office Mojo.