Weekend Box Office Report: ‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ Opens Well But Can’t Catch ‘Zootopia’
In news that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone with a child in their life, Zootopia held on to the number one spot at the box office this weekend and made it look effortless. And yet, 10 Cloverfield Lane’s second place opening is nothing to scoff at, especially for a modestly budged, small-scale thriller (although the “Cloverfield” in the title certainly helped).
Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
1 | Zootopia | $50,000,000 (-33%) | $13,065 | $142,615,126 |
2 | 10 Cloverfield Lane | $25,200,000 | $7,431 | $25,200,000 |
3 | Deadpool | $10,800,000 (-35%) | $3,242 | $328,077,425 |
4 | London Has Fallen | $10,668,000 (-50.7) | $3,055 | $38,850,052 |
5 | Whiskey Tango Foxtrot | $4,600,000 (-38%) | $1,906 | $14,571,903 |
6 | The Perfect Match | $4,150,000 | $4,486 | $4,150,000 |
7 | The Young Messiah | $3,404,000 | $1,933 | $3,404,000 |
8 | The Brothers Grimsby | $3,150,000 | $1,409 | $3,150,000 |
9 | Gods of Egypt | $2,500,453 (-51%) | $1,084 | $27,312,889 |
10 | Risen | $2,250,000 (-42%) | $1,074 | $32,395,761 |
To put 10 Cloverfield Lane’s $25 million opening in perspective, the film cost a reported $13 million to produce, which means that, after marketing costs, it is already well on the way to being profitable. The question now is how audiences will react in the weeks ahead, as many audiences seem to be mixed on the film. If the film plummets next weekend, this could be a short-lived success story, but if it continues to perform even modestly well, Bad Robot’s plan to build a “Clover-verse” will be off to a strong start.
But this weekend was really all about Zootopia, which dropped a small 33% and made $50 million, bringing its current total to $142 million. To put that in perspective, it has effortlessly passed Kung Fu Panda 3 in less than two weeks. At this rate, $250 million is inevitable, but $300 million remains a possibility as word of mouth remains strong (and the rest of March isn’t offering much for family audiences).
Now that we have the positive stuff out of the way, let’s talk about the three other new releases this week, each of which bombed. The Perfect Match and The Young Messiah opening in sixth and seventh place $4 million and $3 million apiece isn’t surprising – no one expected those films to open. However, the eighth place start for The Brothers Grimsby feels like a nail in the coffin for Sacha Baron Cohen’s career. The days of Borat sprinting past $100 million at the box office suddenly feel so very, very long ago. Between this and The Dictator, it will probably be some time before he headlines another comedy.
Everything else followed the pattern established by last week. Deadpool is still an enormous hit, adding $10 million to its haul for a $328 million total (and that 35% drop suggests that it’s going to hang around for a little while longer). London Has Fallen won’t be a disaster, but it won’t reach the heights of Olympus Has Fallen. It will break even if it’s lucky. Meanwhile, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot continued to disappoint and Gods of Egypt is still on track to being one of 2016’s biggest bombs. But hey, at least it now has company in The Brothers Grimsby.