Weekend Box Office Report: January 25-27, 2013

Hansel & Gretel: Wallet Hunters!

After having its release shoved from last March all the way to this past weekend, HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS took the top spot with $19 million.

The R-rated supernatural action-comedy from director Tommy Wirkola (DEAD SNOW) and producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay was the weekend’s widest opening on 3300+ screens, most of which were in higher-priced 3D. The movie (costing anywhere from $50M-$85M, depending on who you believe) also made an additional $35 million from international audiences interested in watching Jeremy Renner shoot more arrows into things.

There’s yet another “re-imagined” fairy tale arriving on March 1st, Bryan Singer’s big-budget (and also delayed from last year) 3D action-fantasy JACK THE GIANT SLAYER. Should be interesting to see if that one can perform any better, especially considering it has an even lesser-known star in Nicholas Hoult.

As for the week’s other new releases, Jason Statham’s cowboy-hatted thief PARKER could only swipe $7 million for a fifth place opening. The presence of Jennifer Lopez obviously couldn’t offer much assistance to author Richard Stark/Donald Westlake’s scruffy bruiser (previously played on screen, albeit under different names, by actors such as Mel Gibson, Lee Marvin and Robert Duvall). For solo Statham movies, PARKER’s opening squeezes it between SAFE ($7.8M) and CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE ($6.9M).

And MOVIE 43, the ensemble collection of comedy shorts, was loathed by critics and audiences alike (a dire ‘D’ CinemaScore) and only gathered $5 million for seventh place despite having plenty of recognizable names and faces in the trailers, posters and TV spots. It only cost a reported $6M, but still… so much for that experiment.

Last weekend’s winner MAMA slipped to second place with another $12.8 million, a 54% drop from its opening — not too bad for a horror release, which tend to plunge as much as 75% in their second week. The wide release of the awards-friendly SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK staked out its spot in #3 with $10 million, breaking up the reign of Chastain by edging ZERO DARK THIRTY into fourth with $9.8 million. Both movies are just about to touch $70M domestic totals.

DJANGO UNCHAINED is still galloping along in sixth, and Tarantino’s latest has already rounded up an additional $111 million from overseas crowds. GANGSTER SQUAD, BROKEN CITY and LES MISERABLES are all battling for last, while A HAUNTED HOUSE gets scared away and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s feature return THE LAST STAND gets buried after a single week on the chart. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY has also finally wandered out of the Top 10, with a global $925.4M total that now surpasses both FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and THE TWO TOWERS. 

Next weekend has a few movies fighting for attention before the Super Bowl kickoff, including Sylvester Stallone’s actioner BULLET TO THE HEAD, the zombie romance WARM BODIES, and the Pacino/Walken/Arkin crook comedy STAND UP GUYS on a few hundred screens.

What February release are you most looking forward to seeing? VOTE HERE!