‘Magnificent Seven’ good enough to win weekend box office
LOS ANGELES — Shooting past all competition, MGM and Sony’s “The Magnificent Seven” took over the weekend box office, surpassing the new animated “Storks,” from Warner Bros.
The remake of John Sturges’ classic 1960 western starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke pulled in an estimated $35 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, meeting analyst expectations of $30 million to $45 million.
The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua, revolves around a squad of seven gunslingers hired by a woman to defend her town from bandits led by a robber baron.
The western arrives nearly six decades after the Sturges movie, which was itself a redo of Akira Kurosawa’s classic “The Seven Samurai.”
Costing nearly $90 million, “The Magnificent Seven” drew both young audiences, thanks to Pratt and Washington, as well as fans of the original. Collectively, they gave the film an A-minus on CinemaScore. Critics were also positive, for the most part, with 63 percent of critics on Rotten Tomatoes praising the movie.
Flying into second place was “Storks” with an estimated $21.8 million. The film performed well below analyst projections of $30 million to $37 million in ticket sales, but opened in 33 international markets this weekend, generating an estimated $18.3 million.
“Storks,” about a gaggle of the feathered creatures delivering babies, features the voices of Andy Samberg and Kelsey Grammer, among others. Written by Nicholas Stoller (“Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising”), “Storks” is the second film to be released by Warner Bros. since the studio revved up its animation business three years ago. The first, 2014’s “The Lego Movie,” became a box-office smash.
The third film, Goldstein said, will be 2017’s “The Lego Batman Movie.”
“Storks,” which cost an estimated $70 million — a relatively modest amount for an animated film — scored with the under-25 crowd, which gave the comedy an A-plus CinemaScore grade.
Warner Bros.’ “Sully” about the 2009 real-life emergency landing of a US Airways passenger jet on the Hudson River, wound up in third place after holding the top spot since its debut two weeks ago. Adding another $13.8 million, the film, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Clint Eastwood, has grossed $92.4 million domestically to date.
“Bridget Jones’s Baby,” from Universal Pictures,” took fourth in its second week — perhaps because many in its target audiences took their kids to see “Storks.” The third film in the “Bridget Jones” series added just $4.52 million for a domestic gross to date of $16.5 million. It’s worldwide take, however, sits at $83.6 million.
Landing at the bottom of the top five was “Snowden,” adding another $4.1 million for a domestic gross of $15.1 million in its second week. The Oliver Stone-directed picture, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, cost $50 million to produce and is being distributed by Open Road Films.