Although One Direction: This Is Us topped the box office over the three-day weekend, the boy band couldn’t hold off Lee Daniels’ The Butler over the extended four-day frame. The Weinstein drama surged to $20 million during the Friday-to-Monday period (a 21 percent increase over last weekend), giving the Forest Whitaker showcase $79.3 million total against a $30 million budget. The Butler is now a lock to earn over $100 million domestically, though it won’t be able to achieve a fourth weekend in first place. Riddick will make sure of that.
One Direction: This Is Us finished in second place with $18 million. After an $8.9 million Friday, Sony was expecting This Is Us to earn about $24-25 million over the four-day weekend, but the film’s fangirl appeal made it even more frontloaded than the studio expected. Sony had to downgrade its three-day result from $17 million to $15.8 million this morning — but the film is hardly in trouble. Morgan Spurlock shot the 3-D doc for just $10 million, and it should do gangbusters business on DVD.
We’re the Millers and Planes stuck around in third and fourth place with $15.9 million and $10.7 million, respectively. After four weekends, Millers has earned $112.9 million, while Planes has taken in $73.8 million.
In fifth place, surprise hit Instructions Not Included continued its incredible run, scoring $10 million from 347 theaters over the holiday frame. The Spanish-language film starring Eugenio Derbez notched a sizzling $28,616 per theater average, and distributors Lionsgate and Pantelion plan on expanding the film substantially next weekend.
Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez’s critically reviled thriller Getaway crashed and burned on its opening weekend. After four days, the Warner Bros. release, which was produced by Dark Castle Entertainment for $18 million, has grossed an anemic $5.5 million, and word of mouth suggests that moviegoers will continue to “get away” from the picture next weekend.
M!nkWords 