Factoring in Super Bowl Sunday, this past weekend is often looked at as one of the most notoriously bad when it comes to movie going. Still, there were some obvious winner and losers at the box office.
Fox’s found-footage superhero flick ‘Chronicle’ took the top spot with $22 million in ticket sales. ‘Chronicle’ just narrowly edged out ‘The Woman in Black’, the ghost story featuring Daniel Radcliffe in his first film outing since wrapping up the immensely popular ‘Harry Potter’ franchise. When you factor in worldwide sales (since the rest of the world isn’t as enthralled with American football), ‘Chronicle’ widens that gap even further, bringing in another $13 million overseas.
Super Bowl weekend’s top B.O. players, Fox’s “Chronicle” and CBS Films’ “The Woman in Black,” fought their way to the end zone, with the former picture earning $22 million to eke out a narrow victory over “Woman,” which is estimated to have made $21 million through Sunday. On a worldwide scale, “Chronicle” was the clear winner, collecting $13 million from 33 day-and-date overseas markets for a global tally of $35 million.
It’s still unclear which of the two top films will win out when it comes to profits. ‘Chronicle’ is reported to have filmed for $12 million but that doesn’t include the advertising budget, which included the viral stunt that had “people” flying over NYC. On the other hand, ‘Woman’ was picked up by CBS Films for only $3 million, with another $15 spent on marketing.
According to Variety, the audience for ‘Chronicle’ was mostly young under-25 males, who gave the film a score of B+. On the other hand, ‘Woman in Black’ was a favorite of under-25 women, with a score of B. Neither of these is a surprise since ‘Chronicle’ is about three young men who get super powers while ‘Woman’ star Daniel Radcliffe is a perennial favorite with the ladies.
The third place spot was taken by Liam Neeson vehicle, ‘The Grey’ which stayed strong in its second week, earning a respectable $9.2 million. The fourth spot was taken by the family-geared ‘Big Miracle’, starring Drew Barrymore (‘Charlie’s Angels’) and John Krasinski (‘The Office’). ‘Big Miracle’ cost Universal an estimated $40 million but only managed to bring in $8.5 million for the opening weekend.
The top five was rounded out by the genre film ‘Underworld: Awakening’ that follows the continuing adventures of the vampire slaying Selene, played by Kate Beckinsale. ‘Underworld’ brought in $5.6 million.