Oz Triumphant!
It looks like another trip down the Yellow Brick Road wasn’t such a bad idea — OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL opened at #1 with $80.2 million.
The vibrant Franco-fronted origin companion to THE WIZARD OF OZ is also the biggest opening so far this year, and the third-biggest March opening ever (behind THE HUNGER GAMES’ $152.5M and ALICE IN WONDERLAND’s $116.1M).
While OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL was definitely a huge first weekend for director Sam Raimi, his web-slinger trilogy is a horse of a different color — SPIDER-MAN started with $114.8M, SPIDER-MAN 2 with $88.1M, and SPIDER-MAN 3 with a whopping $151.1M. (Granted, the wise-cracking wall-crawler had the benefit of a summer release each time.)
For Disney’s return visit to the land of monkeys and Munchkins, critical reaction was inconsistent (60% on Rotten Tomatoes), but paying crowds graded it with a ‘B+’ CinemaScore. The movie has already hit a global total of $150M as it works its way back to a production cost of more than $200M (naturally, a follow-up is already under consideration).
OZ and his witches dropped a house on the rest of the chart, including fellow fantasy feature JACK THE GIANT SLAYER, which tumbled down the beanstalk by 63% from its opening with $10 million in its second weekend. The reigning box office champ of 2013, the R-rated comedy IDENTITY THIEF, was in third with $6.3 million and a $116.5M total.
The new Colin Farrell action flick DEAD MAN DOWN went splat in fourth place with an opening weekend of just $5.3 million, which would seem to be further evidence of moviegoing audiences’ general lack of interest in the actor as a leading man (even the presence of “It Girl” Noomi Rapace didn’t help him). Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s latest SNITCH and the binge comedy 21 AND OVER were close behind.
Bringing up the rear were SAFE HAVEN, ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH and THE LAST EXORCISM: PART II, while the impervious SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK still stays in the Top 10 even as it enters its fifth month of release.
Outside the chart, A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD indeed expired with just $63.3M domestic (but $240M worldwide), Park Chan-wook’s thriller STOKER added a few more screens to its limited release (and still a higher per-screen average than all but OZ), and the Tommy Lee Jones war drama EMPEROR opened in 260 locations to just over a million bucks.
Next weekend brings the Steve Carrel/Jim Carrey dueling magician comedy THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE and the Halle Berry thriller THE CALL (somehow not direct-to-video), plus the limited release of crime comedy SPRING BREAKERS (opening wide on the 22nd) and the romance fantasy UPSIDE DOWN.
What’s your favorite movie directed by Sam Raimi? VOTE HERE!
| # | MOVIE TITLE | WKND $ | TOTAL $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oz the Great and Powerful | $80.2 M | NEW |
| 2 | Jack the Giant Slayer | $10 M | $43.8 M |
| 3 | Identity Thief | $6.3 M | $116.5 M |
| 4 | Dead Man Down | $5.3 M | NEW |
| 5 | Snitch | $5.1 M | $31.8 M |
| 6 | Safe Haven | $3.8 M | $62.8 M |
| 7 | 21 and Over | $5 M | $16.8 M |
| 8 | Silver Linings Playbook | $3.7 M | $120.7 M |
| 9 | Escape from Planet Earth | $3.2 M | $47.8 M |
| 10 | The Last Exorcism: Part II | $3.1 M | $12 M |