Weekend Box-Office: March 16-18, 2012

Everybody jumps for 21 Jump Street!

Updates of 80s material don’t always turn out for the best (witness the recent $25M summer opening for THE A-TEAM movie), and swapping out Johnny Depp with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum for a new 21 JUMP STREET (which, like THE A-TEAM, also came from prolific TV guy Stephen J. Cannell) wasn’t exactly a surfire idea.

But the R-rated comedy (by the directors of CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, strangely enough) took aim and hit just the right spot. Along with some solid reviews, the movie rounded up $35 million on its opening weeked as Tatum’s romance THE VOW makes an exit from the Top 10 (after collecting $121M total). Hill must also be elated with the success since he co-wrote the story and exec produced, and his last R-rated comedy THE SITTER got rejected at theaters just a couple of months ago.

While Dr. Seuss’ THE LORAX continues to dance happily through the rescued trees while counting mad stacks (another $22.8M and a $158.4M three-week total), things are starting to look grim for JOHN CARTER. Disney’s displaced hero lost more than half of its opening business with $13.5M, and at this point it doesn’t seem like word-of-mouth is going to help it get anywhere near its $250 reported production budget. If last week’s poll is any indication, many of you seem to think the mishandled marketing was the main contributing factor among a combination of problems.

Everything else on the chart was a skirmish in the low seven figures. Eddie Murphy’s latest loser A THOUSAND WORDS somehow held on better than the low-budget spooker that beat it last week (SILENT HOUSE already disappeared off the list). SAFE HOUSE holds its position from last week, while JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND actually climbed up a couple of slots. That one’s nearing in on the $100 million mark domestically, but has already crossed $200M overseas.

A Spanish-speaking Will Ferrell stuck his cowboy-hatted cabeza into the Top 10 with his experimental comedy CASA DE MI PADRE, bringing in $2.2 million on just 382 screens. Other new limited releases didn’t make quite that impression, with the Ed Helms/Jason Segel comedy JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME pulling in around $850K on 254 screens and the Nic Cage thriller SEEKING JUSTICE getting mostly ignored with a measly $260K on 231 screens.

Next week has but one major release, the anticipated adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ young adult book THE HUNGER GAMES. The only other notable release is the lauded Indonesian actioner THE RAID. How much do you think THE HUNGER GAMES will make over its opening weekend? VOTE HERE!