There are some weekends when a movie that is so well crafted, so thought provoking, and so much the cinematic masterpiece sweeps into theaters and is overwhelmingly the number one movie at the box office, restoring faith in the American psyche and its ability to both enjoy and reward great movie making. And then there are weekends like this one when we're reminded that people with short attention spans and a preference for watching little boys dressed like strippers and laughing at people getting kicked in the balls (literally and figuratively) have money to spend at the movies too.
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa banked $32 million this weekend to take the number one spot. That's a step down from the $50 million banked on opening weekend by the last Jackass movie Jackass 3-D. That's due in part to the fact that Bad Grandpa had lower non-3-D ticket prices, but also perhaps due to Jackass fans staying away from a movie that was diluted by even the saddest attempt at incorporating a story. That's just good ball-kicking time wasted. No doubt they're holding out for Blu-ray when they can fast forward through the sappy-ish stuff.
The other new movie out this weekend somehow managed to get an incredibly lower RT score than Bad Grandpa, and also fared far worse at the box office. The Counselor opened with just $8 million dollars for a weak fourth place.
Twelve Years A Slave expanded to just over 120 venues but still managed to break into the top ten. At eighth place with $2 million, the movie's word of mouth movement and high praise in the media has it poised to launch even higher when it hits wider release. But the next two weekends will have it up against some heavy competition with Ender's Game debuting next week and Thor: The Dark World the week after. 12 Years may attempt the slow burn build to try and carry audiences in the holiday season.
Gravity may have slipped into second place, but even after three weekends at number one it is still going strong. Dropping just over 30% it still brought in over $20 million and came within a couple hundred thousand of breaking the $200 million mark, an achievement only eight other movies have reached so far this year.
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
$32,000,000Total: $32,000,000LW: N
THTRS: 3,336
Gravity
$20,300,000Total: $199,814,000LW: 1
THTRS: 3,707
Captain Phillips
$11,800,000Total: $70,074,000LW: 2
THTRS: 3,143
The Counselor
$8,000,000Total: $8,000,000LW: N
THTRS: 3,044
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
$6,100,000Total: $100,611,000LW: 5
THTRS: 3,111
Carrie (2013)
$5,900,000Total: $26,021,000LW: 3
THTRS: 3,157
Escape Plan
$4,340,000Total: $17,424,000LW: 4
THTRS: 2,883
$2,150,000Total: $3,410,000LW: 16
THTRS: 123
Enough Said
$1,555,000Total: $13,021,000LW: 7
THTRS: 835
Prisoners
$1,063,000Total: $59,122,000LW: 6
THTRS: 1,347
