Inception Opens Large While Sorcerer’s Apprentice Falters
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Inception made $61.4 million this weekend exceeding most expectations. The Christopher Nolan project starring Leonardo DiCaprio (review here) opened at the high end of industry predictions which had pegged it as heading for a $40-60 million weekend. While its take won’t stand out as a huge number on its own consider that it is the 10th highest grossing opening weekend for an original film in history. Avatar currently tops that list, with many people forgetting that its opening weekend was just $77 million.
Inception‘s concept may have been tough for some to grasp or understand, it isn’t the typical release by any means and is much more challenging for audiences, which is why word-of-mouth will carry it going forward. The film was largely sold on Nolan’s name making it even more remarkable that crowds bought into it primarily for that reason. Also with this not being a 3D film it didn’t have the benefit of those higher ticket prices though12% of the gross came from IMAX screens. Internationally it should do really well also with the studio rolling it out slowly in different markets over the span of a few weeks.
Meanwhile the Jerry Bruckheimer family-adventure film formula seems to have fallen flat. Following up Prince of Persia now with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice which opened even weaker. It made just $17.3 million for the weekend for a five day take of $24 million. While it has decent prospects overseas the movie was budgeted at $150 million making it difficult to imagine it will become popular. POP opened to $30 million and made its way to $90 million, but worldwide it actually pulled in over $300 million. Potentially TSA could follow a similar path and also would seem likely to do well on DVD/Blu-ray.
Last weekend’s breakout hit Despicable Me dropped just 42% and made $32 million. It has now totaled $118 million after just 10 days. Considering its budget was just $69 million it is already a huge success and will likely see a sequel. Predators however, after a decent opening weekend, fell 72% and now looks to top out its run in theaters with just around $50 million.