As expected, The Hunger Games easily held on to the top spot at the box office on Friday, though its steep drop was more reminiscent of front-loaded sequels than original properties. In second place, Wrath of the Titans failed to open anywhere close to its predecessor, while Mirror Mirror got off to a fine start in third.
The Hunger Games plummeted 72 percent to an estimated $18.85 million. The movie had a steeper decline than Alice in Wonderland (58 percent) and The Dark Knight (65 percent), but it did mark a slight improvement over New Moon (76 percent) and Breaking Dawn Part 1 (77 percent). The Hunger Games cruised past $200 million early yesterday, which places it as the fifth-fastest movie ever to reach that level. Through eight days, the popular book adaptation has earned $208.8 million, and it should wind up with a three-day gross of at least $60 million.
Wrath of the Titans debuted to an estimated $12.4 million on Friday, or less than half of Clash of the Titans's $26.1 million opening ($28.7 million when rolling in Thursday night previews). That movie did come out on Good Friday, though, and kids being out of school probably helped juice those results a bit. Still, the best case scenario puts Wrath at around $35 million this weekend, which is a far cry from Clash's $61.2 million opening.
In third place, 2012's first Snow White movie Mirror Mirror opened to an estimated $5.9 million. That's way off from director Tarsem's Immortals, which debuted to $14.8 million back in November. That movie was geared towards fanboys, though, while Mirror Mirror is for families that are more likely to turn out on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Among family movies released early in the year, Mirror Mirror was only a bit off from Bridge to Terabithia and was way up on The Last Mimzy and Nim's Island. For the three-day weekend, the fantasy comedy should wind up with around $20 million, which is a respectable lead-in to the Easter holiday.
21 Jump Street added $4.65 million on Friday, which represents an extremely light 25 percent decline. The movie has now made $82.7 million, and is a lock to pass $100 million in the next week or two.
Facing direct competition from Mirror Mirror, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax remarkably managed to dip just 37 percent to $2.02 million on Friday. The Illumination Entertainment flick has so far earned $183.4 million, and remains on target to eventually close north of $200 million.
Things continue to get worse and worse for John Carter—the mega-budget sci-fi epic slid 61 percent to an estimated $530,000 on Friday, which brings its total to a meager $64.7 million. It's starting to look like $75 million might even be tough to reach.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen expanded to 483 locations and was up 100 percent to an estimated $340,000. If it weren't for the dearth of nationwide releases over the past few weeks, that gross wouldn't be good enough for the Top 10, but as it stands now Salmon Fishing managed to jump all the way to seventh place on Friday.
The Weinstein Company's controversial documentary Bully opened to $30,500 from five locations, which is a very respectable figure for this type of movie. It should wind up with over $100,000 for the three-day weekend.
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