Weekend Box Office Report: March 15-17, 2013

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Oz gets the gold again!

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, the return trip to Emerald City grabbed plenty of green to put OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL on top of the box office for the second week with another $42.2 million.

Disney’s big-budget 3D adventure into L. Frank Baum’s kaleidoscopic fantasyland dropped less than 50% from its opening last weekend (similar to the second week of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, which seems to be the popular point of comparison). The Sam Raimi-directed movie now has a 10-day domestic total of $145M and is rapidly approaching $300M globally.

Despite looking like a Lifetime movie (or perhaps because of it), the Halle Berry abduction thriller THE CALL found its target audience and took second with a surprising $17.1 million. Directed by Brad Anderson (SESSION 9, THE MACHINIST), the movie came with a modest $13M budget and was produced by wrestling company WWE Studios, oddly enough.

Magicians Steve Carell and Jim Carrey pulled a disappearing act with their new comedy THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE, which went up in a puff of smoke with just $10.3 million for a third place opening, even though it opened on 600 more screens than Berry’s 911 operator. Even with a general shortage of comedies this year, the ostentatious Vegas illusionists couldn’t cast a spell on audiences, judging by the turnout and the ‘C+’ CinemaScore they branded it.

Speaking of comedies, in its sixth week the R-rated comedy IDENTITY THIEF hit a $123.7M total and was just a few steps behind Bryan Singer’s 3D fairy tale flop JACK THE GIANT SLAYER, which is currently at a $76.5 million worldwide total on a production budget of $200M. Let’s hope the director gets his groove back when he reunites with Marvel’s mutants for X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.

Further down, The Rock’s SNITCH is still middling (the action actor returns in two weeks with G.I. JOE: RETALIATION), and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK stubbornly refuses to give up the eighth place spot, holding it for the third week in a row as other movies slide past.

Outside the chart, DEAD MAN DOWN is in an early grave after a single week in the Top 10, and THE LAST EXORCISM PART II has been exorcised. And the James Franco crime story SPRING BREAKERS only debuted on three screens but snatched an impressive 90k per-screen average.

Next weekend’s offerings include the Paul Rudd/Tina Fey comedy-drama ADMISSION, Fox’s computer-animated caveman family THE CROODS, and Gerard Butler rescuing President Aaron Eckhart in the actioner OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, plus SPRING BREAKERS expands to 600 screens.

What’s your favorite Jim Carrey role? VOTE HERE!