"The LEGO Movie" Triumphs over "Pompeii" and "3 Days to Kill" at Weekend Box Office

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: LEGO Obliterates 3 Days, Pompeii
by Ray Subers
February 23, 2014


For the third weekend in a row, The LEGO Movie easily took first place at the domestic box office. Meanwhile, 3 Days to Kill and Pompeii both attracted little interest from moviegoers.

The LEGO Movie fell 37 percent to an estimated $31.5 million. That's the second-highest third weekend ever for an animated movie behind Shrek 2 ($37.9 million).

Through 17 days the movie has earned $183.2 million, and Warner Bros. recently announced that they are moving ahead with a sequel (currently scheduled for Memorial Day 2017).







In second place, 3 Days to Kill opened to an estimated $12.3 million. That's a bit lower than The Family, which was the last collaboration between Relativity Media and French producer Luc Besson.

It is at least a minor improvement over recent EuropaCorp outings like Colombiana ($10.4 million) and From Paris with Love ($8.2 million).



More so than other Besson productions, 3 Days to Kill seemed like a close relative to 2009 hit Taken: both movies featured an aging government operative taking out foreign enemies while trying to reconnect with his daughter.

While Taken had a clear, unique premise, 3 Days was marketed like a standard action movie. Audiences connected with Liam Neeson's struggle to save his daughter, but weren't really able to invest in Kevin Costner's hunt for notorious terrorist "The Jackal."



3 Days to Kill's audience was split evenly between men and women, and skewed older (80 percent over 25). They awarded the movie an underwhelming "B" CinemaScore.

In the long run, it should creep past $30 million total.







Big-budget disaster movie Pompeii crumbled with an estimated $10 million this weekend. That number is a tiny fraction of most disaster movies — it's less than half of notorious bomb Poseidon—and is also way lower than director Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil movies.

It is at least a bit higher than Anderson's The Three Musketeers ($8.7 million), and is also a minor improvement over recent 3D CGI-heavy debacles The Legend of Hercules ($8.9 million) and I, Frankenstein ($8.6 million).



The key to selling a large-scale disaster movie is to put a focus on the characters involved: if Titanic was strictly about a sinking ship, it wouldn't have been nearly as successful.

The marketing for Pompeii did try to highlight the central romance between Kit Harington and Emily Browning, but it wound up being literally overshadowed by the CGI volcano destruction.



Pompeii's audience was 52 percent male and 62 percent over the age of 30. With the rate at which movies like this tend to burn out, it's likely that Pompeii ends up earning around $25 million at the domestic box office.







In fourth place, RoboCop fell 57 percent to $9.4 million. That's similar to A Good Day to Die Hard, which dropped 59 percent to $10.2 million on the same weekend last year.

Through 12 days, RoboCop has earned $43.6 million, and now has little chance of ending up over $70 million total.







The Monuments Men rounded out the Top Five with $8.1 million.

So far, the George Clooney movie has grossed a very solid $58 million.







Coming off Valentine's Day weekend, romantic movies About Last Night, Endless Love and Winter's Tale all took big hits.

About Last Night plummeted 71 percent to $7.4 million for a new total of $38.2 million.

Endless Love dropped 68 percent, and has so far earned $20.1 million.

Finally, Winter's Tale fell 71 percent, and in the process it passed $11 million total.







Opening at 21 locations, Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises grossed an estimated $306,000.

The Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature earned an "A-" CinemaScore, and expands in to around 450 theaters next weekend.







Finally, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire reached its final milestone this weekend. On Friday, the Lionsgate sequel passed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest to become one of the Top 10 movies ever at the domestic box office.

To date, Catching Fire has earned $423.6 million, which is a bit ahead of its predecessor's $408 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3787&p=.htm









February 21-23, 2014 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. The LEGO Movie $31,450,000 / $183,160,000
2. 3 Days to Kill $12,300,000
3. Pompeii $10,010,000
4. RoboCop $9,400,000 / $43,600,000
5. The Monuments Men $8,100,000 / $58,050,000
6. About Last Night $7,400,000 / $38,150,000
7. Ride Along $4,667,000 / $123,173,000
8. Frozen $4,357,000 / $384,061,000
9. Endless Love $4,301,000 / $20,142,000
10. Winter's Tale $2,130,000 / $11,224,000

[Tubehead]

I saw 3 days to kill I can't belief this Lego movie is doing that good it kind of looks like bad 1980's clay animated movie im not too sure about pompeli my mom wants to see it.