Car Racing Movie Needed More Speed and Tyler Perry Flops Again at the Box Office

Scott looks at a weekend where a smart dog outraced fast cars to the top spot at the box office.

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This weekend it was the animated family feature Mr. Peabody & Sherman that was able to stave off the competition and grab the number one spot on the box office. While it debuted last weekend at number two ($32 million) behind 300: Rise of an Empire ($45 million), it was able to take the lead thanks to only dropping 32% and ending up with $21.8 million. The sequel to 300 fell 57% and ended up with $19.2 million.

Both of these films were facing the threat from Need for Speed, the movie adaptation of the racing based video game, which was believed to be heading for an opening somewhere in the mid twenty million dollar range. After the dust from the weekend had settled, the film only ended up making $17.8 million and found itself landing in third place. Most likely this happened because of a lack of appeal to draw in audiences outside of those who are familiar with the game, a struggle that any movie with an established source material can face.

With a budget of $66 million, it is quite clear that the film will not be able to reach profitability from the domestic market and will need a decent showing abroad to reach its goals. Luckily for Disney and DreamWorks, the allure of fast exotic cars proved interesting to the global market and it pulled in an international take of $45.6 million. Its strongest market was China, where it made $21.2 million. If the film holds up well over the coming weeks and continues to debut well in new territories, this could end up being a positive outing.

Also debuting this weekend was Tyler Perry’s The Single Moms Club, another film that fell far below expectations. While tracking and prediction numbers made it look as though it could be on pace for an opening of around $15 million (a number similar to Perry’s recent A Madea Christmas, which opened to $16 million), the movie ultimately ended up getting a dismal $8 million. I have been unable to find any budget information on the film, but even after estimating it at $15 million (a similar budget to Peeples, and on the lower end of the budget spectrum for Perry) it is unlikely that the movie will end up turn much, if any, profit.

With the dwindling returns for his movies, this does seem like an appropriate time for Perry to leave the land of the big screen. Currently his full attention seems to be heading in the direction of Oprah’s OWN station, and television could be what is best for him at this point in his career.

For the second weekend in a row, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel was the champion in the category of highest per theatre average. It expanded to 66 theatres this weekend and was able to bring in an average of $55,000 per theatre, which was enough to propel it into the top ten where it landed in eighth place. Considering its continued success, it is safe to say that it will most likely be seeing further expansion next weekend as well.