TNU Box Office Rewind: Star Sightings

Somewhere in a lavish Hollywood estate, movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg must be celebrating, and breathing a huge sigh of relief.

You can breathe now

DreamWorks Animation’s “Home” was a huge hit with family audiences this weekend, easily taking first place with a better than expected $54 million. This is a much-needed bit of good news for Dreamworks Animation and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

But don’t feel too bad for Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. Playing at 3,175 locations, “Get Hard” finished in second place, opening with a very respectable $34.6 million this weekend. That’s pretty good for an R rated comedy, and it ranks third all-time among live-action Will Ferrell movies, and ranks second among Kevin Hart’s recent slew of leading roles.

And it;s not like Kevin Hart wasn’t trying his darndest to get people into the theatre. This is Hart, at my local movie theatre on Saturday afternoon, where he bought tickets for at least 200 people:

This car is taller than me!

He posted the news on Twitter and then it was every man for himself. You should have seen it: It was like the running ob the bulls in Pamplona Spain.

Anyways. the movie’s audience was 54 percent male and 61 percent were 25 years of age or older. Word-of-mouth is mixed (“B” CinemaScore), and reviews are still terrible.

Your top five spring training results:

1. Home — $54 million

2. Get Hard — $34.6 million

3. Insurgent — $22.1 million

4. Cinderella — $17.5 million

5. It Follows — $4 million

TNU Box Office Preview: Will Ferrell runs amok

It’s gonna be a tight race for first place this weekend between DreamWorks Animation’s “Home” and the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy “Get Hard.” This should be an epic battle like the Hulk Hogan/Ultimate Warrior showdown at Wrestlemania VI twenty-five years ago.

Okay, maybe this weekend won’t be as epic, but it should still be fun to watch.

Playing at 3,175 locations, “Get Hard” stars two well liked, super successful comedy stars: Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. Lately the movie has been widely criticized for being racist / homophobic. This lends me to belive some people are expecting way too much from a Will Ferrell movie. This movie is not supposed to be the new Shakespeare.

Anyways, critics hate “Get Hard,” as of this morning, the film has 29 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But critics and haters be damned, “Get Hard” is gonna win the weekend with around $30 million.

Playing at 3,708 locations, “Home” is the 31st feature-length movie from DreamWorks Animation (31st, seriously?) and their sixth under their distribution deal with 20th Century Fox. Their first collaboration was “The Croods,” which was a major hit with over $587 million worldwide. Things looked bright for the studios, but since then, their record at the domestic box office has been “Meh” at best.

In 2013 “Turbo” flopped with $83 million, and “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” disappointed with $111.5 million. Although to be fair “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” is very underrated in my opinion. Then came “How to Train Your Dragon 2” and “Penguins of Madagascar,” neither of which flopped, but they weren’t exactly beloved either.

Fandango is reporting that the movie is out-selling “Rio 2” ($39.3 million) and “The Croods” ($43.6 million), which is a fairly good sign for the movie. But since its now a sequel or a spinoff, I think “Home” lands in second place with around $27 million.

TNU Box Office Preview: This is Sparta!

Liam Neeson and a talking dog. That’s a powerful team indeed. And yet,even their combined might will not be enough to stop the Rise of an Empire.

After seven long years, a sequel to “300” is finally hitting finally theaters this weekend. In March 2007, “300” caught everyone by surprise when it reached theaters. The film’s cast was mostly unknown, and director Zack Snyder’s only previous movie was the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake.

Few expected great things from this comic book adaptation, but the film clicked with audiences worldwide. “300” set a March opening weekend record with $70.9 million, eventually ending its run with $456 million worldwide.

Fandango is reporting that the movie is outselling last year’s “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” which opened to $40.5 million. That sounds pretty good to me. And let’s face it: “300: Rise of an Empire” isn’t going to come anywhere near the original’s $70 million debut. However, it should still be powerful enough for a $45 million opening weekend, more than enough to land in first place.

Rise of an Empire is directed by Noam Murro, but Zack Snyder, is still onboard as a writer and producer. The cast for Empire includes Lena Headey, Rodrigo Santoro, David Wenham, and Andrew Tiernan reprising their roles from the first film, alongside Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Hans Matheson, Callan Mulvey, and Jack O’Connell. Rise of an Empire is opening in 3,470 theatres.

Next we have “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” the latest film from DreamWorks Animation. The animated film based on the characters from the Peabody’s Improbable History segments of the 1960s animated series “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.” The movie features the voices of Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Stephen Colbert, and Leslie Mann among others.

The month of March, which has been a good month for the studio in the past. Last year, “The Croods” opened to $43.6 million, and in 2010 “How to Train Your Dragon” had s $43.7 million debut. Unfortunately, DreamWorks has been hit-or-miss with their animated flicks. In 2012 “Rise of the Guardians” crawled to a $103.4 million finish. While last summer’s “Turbo” barely made it to $83 million.

But I don’t think the studio has anything to worry about, “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” should improve on those movies. Distributor 20th Century Fox is expecting a $25 to $30 million this weekend. But I think it will be more around $30 million. Mr. Peabody is opening in 3,800 theatres.