Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Caesar! debut a bust for Coens
The star-packed Hail, Caesar! had little to exclaim about in its North American debut, giving its directors, Joel and Ethan Coen, the worst wideopening result of their long career and receiving a C-minus grade in CinemaScore exit polls from those who did buy tickets. Meanwhile, the Nicholas Sparks movie gleam is officially gone: Given The
Choice, the 11th adaptation of one of his books, audiences stayed home.
Kung Fu Panda 3 (20th Century Fox) was the No. 1 movie at the weekend box office, taking in about $21.2 million for a two-week domestic total of $69 million, according to comScore, which compiles ticketing data. To compare, the film, made by DreamWorks Animation, has now taken in more than $100 million in China.
Hail, Caesar! (Universal Pictures) was second, collecting about $11.4 million. The film stars the likes of George Clooney, James Brolin and Channing Tatum. For the Coen brothers, the new film is roughly in line with their previous comedies Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. Produced by the Coens
and Working Title Films, it cost $22 million to make.
Star Wars: Episode VII —
The Force Awakens (Disney) chugged away in third place, taking in about $7 million for an eight-week total of about $906 million. The Revenant (Fox) was a very close fourth, and has a seven-week domestic total of about $149.5 million; The Force Awakens crossed the $2 billion mark worldwide over the weekend, according to Disney.
The Choice (Lionsgate) was fifth. It collected about $6 million, the worst opening result — by far — for an adaptation of a book by Sparks. (The previous low mark was
The Best of Me, which arrived to $10 million in ticket sales in 2014.) The Choice was independently financed; Lionsgate bought domestic distribution
rights for $10 million.
Only 8 percent of reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes rated the picture favorably. Audiences gave it a B-plus CinemaScore.
Also of note: After bouncing between directors, stars and studios, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, financed by Cross Creek Pictures for $28 million and distributed by Columbia, became the latest genre mash-up to flop, taking in about $5.3 million.
The movie, based on author Seth Grahame-Smith’s twist on the Jane Austen classic, spent a long time in development and endured a series of starts and stops before shooting began. It stars Lily James of Cinderella and Downton Abbey.
The only major limited release this week came from the Weinstein Co. with its thriller Regression. On 100 screens, the Alejandro Amenabar-directed picture pulled in an estimated $31,000. It follows a detective (Ethan Hawke) and a psychoanalyst (David Thewlis) as they uncover evidence of a satanic cult while investigating the rape of a teen played by Emma Watson.