"Captain America" Loses to "The Other Woman" at Weekend Box Office

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: Woman Gets Women, Ousts Captain America
by Ray Subers
April 27, 2014


Women like movies, too.

That very obvious statement was reinforced for the umpteenth time by The Other Woman, which earned $24.7 million from a predominantly female audience this weekend. The movie took first place at the box office, easily defeating three-time winner Captain America: The Winter Soldier.



The other two new releases didn't fare so well: Brick Mansions opened below $10 million, while The Quiet Ones had one of the worst horror debuts in recent memory.

For the weekend, the Top 12 earned an estimated $96.4 million, which is up 17 percent from the same weekend last year. Next weekend, the Summer movie season kicks off with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which has already earned over $134 million overseas.







Playing at 3,205 locations, The Other Woman exceeded most expectations with a strong $24.7 million debut. That's a bit lower than Bridesmaids ($26.2 million), but is an improvement over star Cameron Diaz's What Happens in Vegas ($20.2 million).

It's also more than twice as much as The Five-Year Engagement ($10.6 million) and The Big Wedding ($7.6 million), two female-skewing comedies that also opened on the final weekend of April.



The movie's success isn't rocket science: women make up 50 percent of moviegoers, and are willing to pay money to see stories and characters they can relate to.

Fox tapped in to this with a strong marketing effort that effectively sold the revenge story—three women team up to take down their cheating lover—while also emphasizing the fun camaraderie between the three leads. In the final run up to release, there was messaging around "girls' night out," which likely helped increase the overall haul.



As expected, The Other Woman's audience was overwhelmingly female (75 percent). It also skewed older (65 percent over 25 years of age).

With a "B+" CinemaScore, poor reviews and tough competition from Neighbors in two weeks, it's unclear exactly how well this will hold. Still, it should end up between $60 and $70 million, which will make this a solid win.







After leading for the past three weekends, Captain America: The Winter Soldier dropped to second place with an estimated $16.05 million (down just 37 percent). The superhero sequel has earned an impressive $224.9 million so far, and remains on pace to ultimately top $250 million.

It faces its biggest challenge yet when it goes head-to-head with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 next weekend.







In its second weekend, Heaven is for Real eased 39 percent to $13.8 million.

The faith-based true story has already earned $51.9 million, and will pass Son of God ($59.6 million) next weekend.







In fourth place, Rio 2 dipped 38 percent to $13.7 million.

The animated sequel has grossed $96.2 million total, and should reach $100 million by Friday.







Playing at 2,647 theaters, Brick Mansions opened in fifth place with an estimated $9.6 million.

That's lower than The Family ($14 million) and 3 Days to Kill ($12.2 million), which were also produced by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp and released stateside by Relativity Media.



A remake of 2006 French movie District B13, Brick Mansions is mostly noteworthy for being the final movie that Paul Walker completed before his untimely death last November (he was only around halfway through Fast & Furious 7).

It's unclear if Walker's presence increased ticket sales for Brick Mansions; it certainly could have done worse this weekend, though.



The movie's audience was 58 percent male and 54 percent over the age of 25. It received a "B+" CinemaScore.

With the highly competitive Summer season around the corner, it's unlikely that Brick Mansions earns more than $25 million or so by the end of its run.







On poor word-of-mouth and horrible reviews, Transcendence plummeted 62 percent to $4.1 million.

The Johnny Depp sci-fi flick has banked $18.5 million total, and looks likely to wind up with around $25 million.







The Quiet Ones bombed with just $4 million. That essentially ties Vampire Academy ($3.9 million) for lowest 2014 opening in over 2,000 theaters.

It's also the worst debut ever for a supernatural horror movie playing at more than 2,000 locations.



The first four months of 2014 haven't been kind to the supernatural horror genre. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones was the lowest-grossing entry in that franchise by a large margin, while Devil's Due closed with less than $16 million.

Oculus has done decent business, though it could still fall short of $30 million.



The Quiet Ones is the worst of the bunch by far, and seems to reinforce the notion that this genre isn't as safe a bet as it used to be.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3830&p=.htm









April 25-27, 2014 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. The Other Woman $24,700,000
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier $16,048,000 / $224,888,000
3. Heaven is for Real $13,800,000 / $51,911,000
4. Rio 2 $13,650,000 / $96,158,000
5. Brick Mansions $9,600,000
6. Transcendence $4,105,000 / $18,472,000
7. The Quiet Ones $4,000,000
8. Bears $3,606,000 / $11,153,000
9. Divergent $3,600,000 / $139,463,000
10. A Haunted House 2 $3,265,000 / $14,246,000