Mark Kermode reviews Get Hard
And now the rest of the Friday box box office news
Homewasnt the only big opener this weekend. The Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedyGet Hardscored a strong $12.91 million Friday, including $1.8m worth of Thursday previews. The $40m R-rated comedy, which earned negative reviews and would-be controversy over its vulgar humor, is looking at a $36m weekend, which is near the top for both comedic actors. If that $36m debut comes to pass, it will be Kevin Harts second-biggest star vehicle opening behind the $41m debut ofRide Alongand it will be Will Ferrells fourth-biggest opening behindThe LEGO Movie($69m),Talladega Nights($47m), andMegamind($46m) while just ahead of the $35.5m debut ofThe Other Guys.
ThatGet Hard, an R-rated comedy, will approach the career highs of both performers is impressive and frankly shows that their combined star power actively boosting the results beyond a mere one-man show. FerrellsBlades of Glorydebuted with $33m on this weekend in 2007 and ended up with $118.5m domestic. IfGet Hardfollows suit, then expect asolid $129m domestic finish. Of course, the explicitly bro-centric comedy could get slaughtered byFurious 7next next weekend, but the Warner Bros./Time Warner Time Warner Inc. film is cheap enough to quality as a win pretty much by the end of Sunday.
The high profile expansion this weekend wasIt Follows. The acclaimed festival darling horror film had a smashing four-screen debut two weeks ago, which caused distributor Radius-TWCto change course and go for a semi-wide theatrical release instead of a VOD debut yesterday. I wish I could say they made the right call, and Im glad that horror fans will get to see this one in theaters (my wife and I are checking it out tonight), but a $1.4 million opening on 1,218 screens does not bode well for the film or whatever hopes horror fans were pinning on it in terms of resurrecting original multiplex horror. Were talkingThe Quiet Onenumbers here, and itll end up with an opening weekend of around half ofYoure Next.
Frankly I think this is less of a horror is doomed situation and more of a studio matters situation (along with arthouse interest does not equal mainstream interest). A major studio, be it Universal/Comcast Comcast Corp. or Sonys Screen Gems may-well have treated this like a standard teens go to a horror movie on Friday night and get scared release and had the muscle to just release it as a mainstream horror title and not care about its artier inclinations (its not like horror generally has strong legs and/or gets good audience ratings anyway). But anyway, I will hopefully have seen the film by the time we do the weekend estimates tomorrow, so Ill leave it at that.
The Jennifer Lawrence/Bradley Cooper period-piece dramaSerenaarrived in 60 theaters this weekend courtesy of Magnolia. For the record, the film has been on VOD for a month and has been written about in a negative context profusely for the last year. So dont let anyone get away with writing Jennifer Lawrence movie BOMBS! type headlines. This was doomed to be a low-level title the minute it wasnt picked up for mainstream theatrical distribution, which was mostly because it was neither a franchise film nor a piece of Oscar-bait. Anyway, the film earned around $38k yesterday and should have $126k by tomorrow.
Noah BaumbachsWhile Youre Youngdebuted courtesy of A24 on four screens and earned around $60k yesterday. TheBen Stiller/Naomi Watts/Adam Driver/Amanda Seyfried/Charles Grodin film should earn around $200k for the weekend and hopefully will expand accordingly as a bit of adult counter-programming. In holdover news,Lions Gate EntertainmentsThe Divergent Series: Insurgentearned $6.85mon Friday, dropping 67% from last Friday to bring its cume to $77m. That sets the the stage for a $23m second weekend (-55%) and a $88m ten-day domestic cume. Thats slightly worse on all counts compared toDivergentlast year.
Walt DisneysCinderellaearned another $4.73m on its third Friday (-49%) to bring its cume to a strong $137.24m. Expect a $17.5m third weekend and a domestic total just over $150m.Run All Nightearned another $630k (-55%) to bring its cume to $22.2m whileFocuscrossed the $50m mark with a $385k Friday. 29th Century FoxsKingsman: The Secret Serviceshould have around $3m for the weekend and a $119m cume, whileThe Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotelshould earn around $2.3m for the weekend for a $28m cume. Finally,Do You Believeearned $0.65k on Friday (-43%) for a new cume of $5.55m.
And thats it for today. Join me tomorrow for weekend estimates and more holdover news.
If you like what youre reading, follow @ScottMendelson on Twitter, and like The Ticket Booth on Facebook. Also, check out my archives for older work HERE.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/03/28/friday-box-office-get-hard-nabs-12m-it-follows-flops/
