This one goes to Oblivion!
Tom Cruise is back on the big screen battling bad things for your entertainment, rocketing his latest movie OBLIVION to the top of the chart with $38.1 million.
TRON LEGACY director Joe Kosinski’s sci-fi story (arguably derived from a dozen other sci-fi stories) only made a fair impression on critics and audiences alike (a 59% Rotten Tomatoes rating and a ‘B-‘ CinemaScore). But Cruise remains a top draw internationally, where OBLIVION has made an additional $112 million since its release last week (it will need to continue attracting eyes overseas, considering it cost as much as $150M to make).
OBLIVION (the only new movie in the Top 10) marks a decent opening weekend for the diminutive superstar, better than his last two offerings JACK REACHER ($15.2M) and ROCK OF AGES ($14.4M) — but his futuristic repairman is left behind by almost everything in the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series (GHOST PROTOCOL initially rolled out in IMAX only to $12.7M). He was also dusted by the biggest April opening weekend, which remains 2011’s FAST FIVE with a debut of $86.2M.
Last week’s scoreboard-topper, the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, is still swinging in second place with another $18 million and a 10-day total of $54 million. Meanwhile, THE CROODS have settled into the #3 spot for the third week in a row, gathering another $9.5 million (and a whopping worldwide total of $427.1M).
SCARY MOVIE 5 lost more than half of its already-weak opening, dropping to fourth place with $6.2 million, not too far ahead of G.I. JOE RETALIATION‘s fourth week in theaters. The Ryan Gosling/Bradley Cooper crime drama THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES added more than 1,000 screens and drove up to sixth place with $4.7 million.
OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN could end up crossing the $100 million mark (before Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx repel another DC invasion in June’s WHITE HOUSE DOWN), and Sam Raimi’s OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (the third O movie on the list, O RLY) is about to depart the Top 10 but may just ultimately make it to a $500M worldwide total.
Outside the chart, TYLER PERRY’S TEMPTATION: CONFESSIONS OF A MARRIAGE COUSELOR exits before hitting $50M, while a new Christian-themed baseball movie called HOME RUN rounded the bases with $1.6M on just 381 screens. That’s certainly better than the 350-screen release of Rob Zombie’s latest horror flick THE LORDS OF SALEM, which got burned at the stake with a per-screen average about the same as the reissue of the two-decades-old JURASSIC PARK 3D (in its third week in theaters).
It’s another two weeks before IRON MAN 3 officially kicks off the summer movie season, but next weekend does offer the latest from Michael Bay, the Mark Wahlberg/Dwayne Johnson musclehead action-comedy PAIN & GAIN, plus the romcom THE BIG WEDDING and limited releases including Matthew McConaughey’s MUD and the farming drama AT ANY PRICE.
What big summer movie are you most excited about? VOTE HERE!
| # | MOVIE TITLE | WKND $ | TOTAL $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oblivion | $38.1 M | NEW |
| 2 | 42 | $18 M | $54 M |
| 3 | The Croods | $9.5 M | $154.8 M |
| 4 | Scary Movie 5 | $6.2 M | $22.9 M |
| 5 | G.I. Joe: Retaliation | $5.7 M | $111.2 M |
| 6 | Olympus Has Fallen | $4.5 M | $88.8 M |
| 7 | The Place Beyond the Pines | $4.7 M | $11.4 M |
| 8 | Evil Dead | $4.1 M | $48.4 M |
| 9 | Jurassic Park 3D | $4 M | $38.4 M |
| 10 | Oz the Great and Powerful | $3 M | $223.7 M |