Limitless Wins Box Office Weekend
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All three new openers at the box office performed well with Limitless topping the charts by exceeding industry expectations. The Lincoln Lawyer and Paul came in fourth and fifth respectively with solid openings considering their budgets. A weekend filled with NCAA Tournament contests made curious that three films that would appeal to males opened up, let alone opened well.
Limitless was supported by a strong marketing campaign from Virgin Produced, the first film to be backed by the company. Still it wasn’t believed to be on track to exceed the low double digits but ended up pulling in $19 million. Generally positive reviews may have factored in as well, but it looks like Bradley Cooper has some legit draw now to his name, and the marketing efforts really paid off. With a budget of just $27 million it could reach profitability by the end of the week.
Based on the popular novel The Lincoln Lawyer got the best reviews of the new films and early screenings built some good word of mouth. A promotion with Groupon offered the chance to buy tickets for $6 as well which certainly raised awareness at the very least. The movie made $13.4 million and its prospects look good going forward. A $40 million budget also puts things into perspective as it should be able to exceed that easily in its theatrical run assuming it produces a good multiplier, which it seems likely to do.
The comedy Paul may see a steeper drop-off in the coming weeks but its $13.1 million opening is quite good and easily the biggest to date for Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Its $40 million budget is reasonable to begin with but it is the overseas box office that will put the film over the top. It has already made $26 million from foreign markets alone with the strength of course coming from the UK.
Amongst holdovers last weekend’s number one Battle Los: Angeles saw a large but expected drop of 59% to finish in third place with $14.6 million. Rango hung on to second place by falling just 32% to $15.3 million. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 was Red Riding Hood, The Adjustment Bureau, the massive bomb that is Mars Needs Moms, Beastly, and Hall Pass.