Orson Scott Card's famous novel finally made it to the big screen this weekend, as Ender's Game debuted with $28 million, a so-so opening for a movie that cost about $110 million to make. The film played to a make audience mostly over the age of 25 and received a "B+" Cinemascore, so it's final gross may be a bit underwhelming. In second place was Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, which fell a pretty soft 36%, pulling in another $20 million and ensuring that a Jackass movie may actually make over $100 million, as its gross stands today at a healthy $62 million.
In third was Last Vegas, otherwise known as The Hangover for seniors, as the comedy starring four Oscar winners earned $16.5 million and an "A-" from its mostly over 45 audience. That particular crowd has few movies targeting them, so this could play well over the next month and potentially earn $60 million total, which is pretty good for a small comedy with a fairly low budget. And the other new release, the animated film Free Birds, came in fourth with $16 million, which is pretty low for a family movie, but another one that could hold up the way Planes did for so long, due to a lack of competition until Disney's Frozen opens at Thanksgiving.
Top 5:
- Ender's Game- $28 million
- Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa- $20.5 million
- Last Vegas- $16.5 million
- Free Birds- $16.2 million
- Gravity- $13.1 million
In the holdovers, Gravity fell its first pretty steep week to week drop, as it lost a lot of IMAX screens to Ender's Game, and now looks to finish with at least $250 million. In limited release news, 12 Years a Slave continues its successful expansion by Fox Searchlight, as it opened in more theaters and came in with $4.6 million, so the word of mouth on that one is clearly pretty strong. Next up it's Marvel's Thor: The Dark World, which has already made a killing overseas and is expected to open well here too.
