'Oz' the Great and Profitable
Welcome to the Box Office Report, where James Franco opens at number one in our heart every week.
.Welcome to the Box Office Report, where James Franco opens at number one in our heart every week.
1. Oz: the Great and Powerful (Buena Vista): $80.3 million in 3,912 theaters
OK, let's get this out of the way: wow. We did not expect Franco's Oz to hit $80 million in its first weekend. Sure, experts did, but what do they know? That's a lot of money! But good for Oz and good for Disney, and, really everyone involved here. The list of people who are waving certain fingers at haters right now include: Disney executives, for doubts they could succesfully pull off an Oz movie in 2013, and Sam Raimi, for doubts he could be the guy to pull it off. He does 'big' well. He proved it with Spider-Man. He's a huckster at heart, a door-to-door vacuum salesman who can put on a show on your front step. He wants you to have fun at the movies, and we can't help but love the guy for it. Whether or not he succeeded with Oz is up for debate, but at the very least it's some visual cotton candy to get us through the last doldrums of winter. As poor as this movie allegedly is, we're happy to see everyone succeeding. Yes, that includes you, Franco.
2. Jack the Giant Slayer (Warner Bros.): $10 million in 3,525 theaters
Oh boy. From a surprise success, to a depressingly bad failure. So, remember last week when we told you this debuted worse than John Carter and had a similar budget? Well, Box Office Mojo point out Jack's second week earnings drop was actually worse than Carter's mathematically Meaning, it's definitely going to be considered a bigger failure in the end.
3. Identity Thief (Universal): $6.3 million in 3,002 theaters [Week 5]
Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman's comedy just keeps chugging along down here, making enough to keep it in the conversation. At this point McCarthy is just padding her stats as one of comedy's reigning queens. And we're OK with that. We're excited to see what she comes up with when she hosts Saturday Night Live next month.
4. Dead Man Down (FilmDistrict): $5.3 million in 2,188 theaters
This movie stars an Oscar-nominated actor and a Golden Globe winner. This is like the sad nadir of two actors' careers. Hopefully, at least Farrell can still come back from it. He showed signs of life over the last few years. This is first real stinker since 2009, depending on who you ask.
5. Snitch (Summit): $5.1 million in 2,340 theaters [Week 3]
The Rock's acting smells like cat pee.