Misleading headline:
Box office report: ‘The Butler’ cleans up with $25 million, wipes the floor with ‘Kick-Ass 2’
This weekend at the box office, a superhero comedy, a Steve Jobs biopic, and a Harrison Ford thriller all got served by a butler. “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” to be exact. The Weinstein Company’s awards-bait drama, which stars Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, topped the chart with an excellent $25 million from 2,933 theaters in its first frame. Audiences issued the well-reviewed picture an enthusiastic “A” CinemaScore grade, which sets it up for a lucrative box office run as summer draws to a close.
[…]
“We’re the Millers” maintained its spot in second place. The pot-smuggling comedy, which stars Jason Sudiekis and Jennifer Aniston, fell only 33 percent in its second weekend to $17.8 million and has now lit up $69.5 million worth of tickets against a trim $37 million budget. “Millers” is now a lock to surpass $100 million at the domestic box office, which would make it Sudeikis’ second film to reach the milestone (alongside his previous Aniston team-up, “Horrible Bosses”), and Aniston’s sixth.
Last weekend’s champ, “Elysium,” took a major hit in its sophomore frame. The $115 million sci-fi film dropped 54 percent — the largest fall in the top 10 — to $13.6 million, which gives the tepidly received spectacle a $55.9 million total. Currently, “Elysium” seems headed for an $85 million to $90 million finish — well below director Neill Blomkamp’s $115.6 million finish for “District 9.”
Down in fourth place, Universal’s “Kick-Ass 2” stumbled in its opening weekend with a meager $13.5 million. That’s a big step below the original “Kick-Ass,” which debuted to $19.8 million en route to $48.1 million total in 2010. While that was hardly an eye-popping total, Universal pushed ahead with a sequel based on “Kick-Ass”‘ popularity in geek circles and its strong home video sales. Unfortunately, few people were very interested in the sequel (including star Jim Carrey, who would not do any publicity for the R-rated film after deciding he would not promote violence).
The real news is the complete disaster for the movie industry at the box office this summer. Hollywood has dropped more bombs this year than the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.
$25 million might sound like a lot of money to you or me, but it’s not even in the top 100 for an opening weekend of a top Hollywood production. Elysium flopped in week two and Kick Ass laid an egg.
Meanwhile Tommy Christopher is freaking out over armed guards in a movie theater showing The Butler and I appear to have been banned from Mediaite.
Oh well.
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/jane-fonda-nancy-reagan-butler-protests/2013/08/19/id/521077?s=al&promo_code=14932-1
brought this up from downstairs.
Veterans not too happy that Hanoi Jane is portraying Nancy Reagan in the movie. will protest screenings
That will certainly bring the ticket sales up. Might just save the movie.
I think Fonda was picked for the role just to piss off conservatives. Oprah has turned a new leaf, and it isn’t pretty.
It’s always been ugly, she’s just never felt as empowered as she does now to show it.
Yep.
Then Fonda stuck it in their eye wearing the Hanoi Jane t-shirt while promoting the movie. Classy.
Neither was her old leaf very pretty. 🙄
off topic
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/08/19/obama-admin-tells-gay-illegal-immigrants-if-they-get-married-their-illegal-entry-into-the-u-s-will-be-forgiven/
do not care if they marry or not what does that have to do with breaking the LAW and coming to this country illegally?
My friend who went to see “The Butler” said it was “Forrest Gump” for black people – like when they did “Hello Dolly” and turned Carol Channing’ s Jewish yenta character into Pearl Bailey. Something got lost in the translation.
Hell, You’ve been banned at better places than Mediaite.
I’m going for the record.
Of all the places I’ve been thrown out of, that wedding chapel at Lake Tahoe was probably the strangest. (I don’t count the Yum Yum Donut shop cuz that was my psycho ex-girlfriend’s fault.)
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/19/library-director-says-year-old-should-step-aside-to-let-others-win-reading/poststar.com/news/local/librarian-suggests-turning-the-page-on-longtime-reading-club-winner/poststar.com/
just what does this say to kids?
It says Library Directors are just as stupid as Superintendents of Public Education and most other politicians.
Obamas got another puppy ….
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/19/sunny-puppy-obama-white-house/2674955/?csp-fbfanpage
Will Sunny and Bo need separate aircraft, or will they get along better than Obama’s and be black to share?
Love autocorrect. Be able to share. And Obamas.
made sense the other way, too
They don’t spend much time with the dog they have. I guess they saw the diving poll numbers and thought aha another dog.
It was either that or a baby.
Does this make Barack a rancher?
your good, really really good. i pray there aren’t any more coffee cups i haven’t even thought of.
😆
Barack Cruella d’Obama
roflmao
dogs…my dog is dying. old guy.sad.
second daughter called today and i told her…biology biology,stop telling everyone you hate men and you’re never going to want a baby. UBFOS child. So, so FOS.
she says she wants a dog..i said take one of your 45 damn cats you’ve already tried and left at my house.
One of the key metrics on movie success is the ratio of ticket sales to production budget. Now, sometimes the marketing budget is higher or lower than usual. The Butler got a lot of free publicity, while Kick-Ass 2 and Jobs probably had the most traditional advertising this week.
The Butler made $25 million this weekend, but will have a significant drop off. The benefit is that it was made for $30 million and it’s promotion as an “important” movie will get more adult couples with no kids going to it.
The Butler also benefited by the fact that Kick-Ass 2 and Jobs both tanked. Paranoia with Harrison Ford completely bombed. Of the top 10, the one movie that has well exceeded its budget is “We’re the Millers” with $70 million over two weekends. The Wolverine just broke even after 4 weeks. Elysium is continuing the stink up the joint, still earning less than half its budget in ticket sales and most likely unable to break even by the time it is thrown out of theaters.
imdb.com is saying the budget was estimated at 25million, so they made that back. Seems like a low budget for that all star cast. Oprah probably guilted them into working pro bono or for a percentage.
The reviews aren’t that friendly either, mostly feeling duped with the re-writing of history. I know Reagan’s biographer’s going ape-sh*t.
Maybe James Frey needs to have a sit down with Miss Oprah ? 😉
As one reviewer said, maybe the TRUE story of this butler would have been much more interesting.
That movie will have a smaller back end than MO.
LOL !
Are you insinuating that Oprah used slave-wage labor to make the movie? 😛
Elysium – The Building. Poor residents get to enter via a different door than rich.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/class_doorfare_ZIEobiEylc8G1uQAcLZn1O
myiq2xu, you’re very brave and very smart. I am running out of coffee cups to throw at you.
gawd I hope I’m running out of coffee cups. I’m starting to get sleepy
I just had a really weird dream. The first half seemed to involve me planning to get married. I remember who but not why.
The second half involved me wandering the old local courthouse, trying in vain to locate a restroom.
You can guess what I needed to do when I first woke up.
Hmmmm, well perhaps some unresolved feelings and too much beer?
or just unresolved beer.
No unresolved suicidal feelings, no beer today.
Damn, I had to push the button on the remote four times to get it to work. I also had to jiggle the batteries between #3 and #4 attempt.
I hate when that happens.
I have new batteries in the other room but that’s too far to walk.
I understand the batteries in our bedroom remote seem to go bad more quickly than any other remote in the house. The only reason we can think of is that the dogs step on it or lay on it at night?? I can’t tell you how many times we’ve struggled with that remote instead of getting our lazy butts up and getting new batteries.
Use the force Luke.
Flip the old batteries….again
I tried that but the television is immune to my Jedi powers.
I crawl a lot. 😆
Get some rest 2xu. you are very very good at this game. I don”t think i am much of a match for a while. i’ll just try to read and not wreck havoc. besides i seem unable to type anymore.
Whew….thank God we have Obama to protect us….from spouses./s
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-interview-detention-heathrow
So I go out front to water the plants and when I turn on the water I discover to my chagrin that the sprayer has become loose, causing water to spew in all directions.
He’s my quandry: should I wait for my cool, clammy clothes to dry or should I change into dry clothing? The wet sensation is not entirely unpleasant but it looks like a had a juvenile accident.
They are adult accidents , if you are over 50 . 😉
Well it’s dry now.
Just to be sure, best to give the now dry area a sniff test.
Have a product for you Mensa posted it
Filed under things that make you go hmmmm.
She died three weeks after saying bin Laden was already dead in a David Frost interview. And shortly after her death someone found the need to edit that segment out of the video.
I do the same thing in the produce section of the supermarket.
CIA admits role in Iranian coup while Britain tried to continue covering up it’s participation.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/cia-admits-role-1953-iranian-coup
That’s been public knowledge since the 70’s.
Yeah, but it’s always interesting when they finally make it official.
During my previous life as a bug man I used to get sent in to spray recently vacated places that were so infested that the cleaning crews wouldn’t touch them. That meant I went in twice – Spray, clean, replace/repair (if needed), paint, spray again, re-rent.
What a beautiful home , I hope insurance helps get it fixed up .
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/08/19/john-kerry-clears-state-department-employees-punished-by-clinton-over-benghazi/
kerry clears state dept employees punished by Clinton over Benghazi.
you got to be kidding they let them die and still get to keep their jobs. no consequences
They staffers were just “following orders” and you wouldn’t want disgruntled staffers blabbing now would you ?