"No Good Deed" Makes #1 at Box Office

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: No Good Deed Succeeds, Guardians Passes $300 Million
by Ray Subers
9/14/14


No Good Deed easily took first place ahead of Dolphin Tale 2 on another quiet weekend at the domestic box office.

Playing at 2,175 locations, the Screen Gems thriller opened to an estimated $24.5 million. That's in the same general range as 2009's Obsessed ($28.6 million), which shared a producer (Will Packer) and star (Idris Elba) with No Good Deed.

More impressively, it debuted significantly higher than last year's The Call ($17.1 million), which was also a Sony thriller featuring a female protagonist in a confined location.







No Good Deed managed to successfully combine a few key ingredients. First, and most importantly, it was well-positioned within the perennially successful home invasion subgenre.

These movies manage to tap in to one of our most common fears (harm to our home/family), while also promising an element of wish fulfillment (taking control and fighting back against these invaders).



Another key element to its success was its strong lead pairing of Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson. Both actors have quietly developed a following over the past decade, and these roles seemed liked good showcases for their talent.

It also probably didn't hurt that there's been nothing significant in the market for weeks now; No Good Deed is the first movie to open north of $20 million since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the second weekend of August.



The audience for No Good Deed was made up primarily of older women (60 percent female, 59 percent over the age of 30). They gave the movie a "B+" CinemaScore, which is a solid result for this genre.

While the schedule gets pretty busy over the next few weeks, No Good Deed should still wind up with around $60 million total.







In second place, Dolphin Tale 2 opened to an estimated $16.55 million. That's down 14 percent from the first Dolphin Tale, which debuted to $19.15 million around the same time in 2011.

Ticket sales were likely a bit closer, though, as the first Dolphin Tale got a boost from 3D premiums.



This isn't a bad opening, per se, but it isn't particularly impressive either. Simply making another movie and slapping a "2" on the end isn't enough to really entice moviegoers; Dolphin Tale 2 didn't seem to offer anything new in the story department, and as a result it took a bit of a hit.

Still, this movie is the type of family-friendly entertainment that tends to play well in the long run. With an "A" CinemaScore and solid reviews, look for Dolphin Tale 2 to finish with at least $55 million.







While Guardians of the Galaxy yielded the top spot, it still managed to have another impressive weekend: the movie eased 22 percent to an estimated $8.04 million.

On Saturday, it passed $300 million, which makes it the first movie to do so since Frozen back in January. It's now earned $305.9 million, and is on track for at least $325 million by the end of its run.







Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took fourth place with $4.8 million. The movie was off a light 26 percent, which is probably due in part to the addition of IMAX screens this weekend.

To date, Ninja Turtles has taken in an impressive $181 million.



Let's Be Cops rounded out the Top Five with $4.3 million (down 23 percent).

To date, its earned $73 million total.







Playing at 809 theaters, The Drop opened to a solid $4.2 million. The crime drama likely got a boost from the fact that it featured James Gandolfini's final performance.

A solid comparison is A Most Wanted Man, which featured Philip Seymour Hoffman's final lead role: the movie opened to $2.69 million from 361 theaters back in July.

Fox Searchlight is planning to expand The Drop a bit next weekend, and it should be playing in at least 1,000 theaters.







The Skeleton Twins opened to an estimated $411,000 from 15 theaters, which translates to a strong $27,400 per-theater average.

The movie is set to expand next weekend ahead of a nationwide release on September 26th.







The three-part adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged ended with a whimper this weekend. Opening at 242 theaters, Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt? bombed with just $355,000.

In comparison, the first two movies each opened above $1.68 million. To be fair, the second outing opened at over 1,000 theaters, and both previous movies had more marketing/publicity ahead of their launches.



Ultimately, the entire three-part endeavor will likely wind up with less than $10 million at the domestic box office (and not a whole lot overseas as well).

The troubled production history is surely to blame for some of this—the cast changed with each installment —though it does call in to question whether the novel is as popular as it's perceived to be.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3907&p=.htm









September 12-14, 2014 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. No Good Deed $24,500,000
2. Dolphin Tale 2 $16,550,000
3. Guardians of the Galaxy $8,041,000 / $305,926,000
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles $4,800,000 / $181,041,000
5. Let's Be Cops $4,300,000 / $72,972,000
6. The Drop $4,200,000
7. If I Stay $4,050,000 / $44,937,000
8. The November Man $2,750,000 / $22,495,000
9. The Giver $2,626,000 / $41,329,000
10. The Hundred-Foot Jounrey $2,461,000 / $49,409,000

[isiahthomas]

I'm gonna see No Good Deed, The Drop, The Equalizer with Denzel Washington next week because i just started a new job and i don't get paid until September 22nd. LOL@Taraji Henson's hair in No Good Deed hahahahahahahahahaha. I liked the way her hair looked in Baby Boy and Think Like A Man 1 and 2. Think Like A Man 2 is gonna be on video tomorrow. I rented it this past Saturday because my mom hadn't seen it and the video store i go to gets new movies on Saturday before it comes out on Tuesday.

[isiahthomas]

I saw No Good Deed last Sunday and I liked it. Very good movie and Idris Elba was cold blooded towards women. I like the cute white woman Leslie Bibb that was Taraji Henson's friend.