‘Grandpa’ pushes serious films away

Audiences chose “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” over Oscar hopefuls this weekend, and Johnny Knoxville’s raunchy comedy laughed its way to an opening estimated at $32 million.

The R-rated road-trip romp from MTV Films and Paramount took the 3-D space epic “Gravity” and Tom Hanks’ “Captain Phillips” down a peg in the process. The mature-skewing awards contenders had finished one-two for the past two weekends, and “Gravity” had won the last three. But driven by young audiences, Knoxville’s sleazy geezer tale — the first broad comedy in theaters since summer’s “We’re the Millers” — stole the show.

Warner Bros.’ Sandra Bullock-George Clooney space saga — still in a market-high 3,707 theaters, mostly 3-D and Imax — continued to impress in its fourth week, rolling up $20 million over the three days and upping its domestic total to $200 million. Its weekend grosses were off just 33 percent from last week’s. “Captain Phillips”’ also held strongly, losing just 28 percent of its second-week audience to finish third with $11.8 million in its third week.

And another Oscar frontrunner, “12 Years a Slave,” broke into the Top 10 as Fox Searchlight expanded its slavery drama from 19 to 123 theaters, and it brought in just over $2 million. It averaged $5,056 per-screen, easily the best of any wide release.

Comedy-craving audiences were ready for hiddencameras hijinks of “Bad Grandpa,” which stars Knoxville as 86-year-old Irving Zisman, who takes his 8year-old grandson Billy (Jackson Nicoll) on a “Borat”like journey across America. It doesn’t match the $50 million opening of “Jackass 3D” in 2010, but the three-day total for “Bad Grandpa” doubles its production budget. The “Jackass” franchise, drawn from creator and star Knoxville’s 2000-2001 MTV show, has been a gold mine for Paramount. The first three movies, also produced on the relative cheap, have brought in $335 million.

— TheWrap