None of the weekend's new releases got anything even remotely close to good reviews-- the closest is Parker, with a 35% Rotten Tomatoes score-- but the people need something to see, and it seems they've chosen Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Well, sort of. The R-rated revisionist fairy tale brought in $5.9 million on Friday, on track for a $17 million weekend and first place-- though not nearly the kind of numbers you might expect for something action-packed and in 3D.
Coming in behind it wasn't either of the other new releases but Mama, which made $3.8 million and, according to Deadline, will have a total gross of $47.5 million by the end of the weekend. You have to go all the way down to #5 to find the next new release, Jason Statham's Parker, which made $2.1 million, and right behind it is Movie 43, which brought in $1.8 million. That one actually only cost $6 million, despite the cast featuring a million stars, so it will manage to make a profit-- but probably not nearly as much as the people behind it were hoping.
Despite highlights like Mama and the wide release of Zero Dark Thirty, this has been a typically brutal January for new movies, and will only get a bit better next weekend, with the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Bullet to the Head and the zombie romance Warm Bodies on their way. Let us know in the comments what you're seeing this weekend, and if any of the new movies were actually better than the critics said.
