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‘The Butler’ stays on top for 2nd week

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Even the end of the world couldn’t stop “The Butler” at the box office.

“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” ruled the box office for a second consecutive week, despite a few well-publicized films targeting teens and tweens making their debut. The Forest Whitaker starrer took the box office crown with $17 million this weekend, according to studio estimates.

Surprisingly, the civil rights film which also stars Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, and Cuba Gooding, Jr skewed to a different audience thanks to positive word-of-mouth. According to the Hollywood Reporter, white moviegoers made up 55 percent of the film’s audience, a 7% increase from it’s opening week.

“We’re the Millers” showed it’s dysfunctional family has box office staying power. In it’s third week, the Jason Sudeikis/Jennifer Aniston vehicle grossed $13.5 million to come in second for the week. Hoping to become the next “Twilight” franchise, “Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” pulled in a disappointing $9.3 million for the weekend and $14 million for the week (it opened on Wednesday) to come in third. The film is based on a popular series of young adult novels. That popularity didn’t seem to make it to the big screen.

The low budget action comedy about a possible end of the world “The World’s End” surprising grabbed fourth place with $8.9 million. Starring Simon Pegg, the film outperformed much of it’s competition despite being on only 1,549 theaters. By comparison, Mortal Instruments were on 3,118 theaters.

The other big opening was the horror film “Youre Next’ which finished just outside the top 5 grossing $7.1 million to grab sixth place. Disney’s animated feature “Planes” rounded out the top 5 with $8.6 million.

‘The Butler’ serves its way to #1

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Suffice it to say, ‘The Butler’ kicked ass.

Thanks to a media blitz by the queen of all media, Oprah Winfrey, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” took in an estimated $25 million to open in the top spot at the box office, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The civil rights film starred Winfrey and Forest Whitaker as they easily dominated this week’s new releases.

The long-awaited superhero sequel “Kick-Ass 2” was projected to take the top spot, but instead mustered a disappointing $13.6 million which was good enough for a hold on third place. Critics skewered the story about would-be superheroes starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Another star-studded film came up short as “Paranoia” opened to a pathetic $3.5 million, which couldn’t even get it into the top ten. The thriller starring Liam Hemsworth and Harrison Ford came in at thirteenth place.

Having the star of a hit show and rumors of a new idevice couldn’t create enough buzz to get crowds to see “Jobs.” The Ashton Kutcher attempt based on Steve Jobs came in 7th with $6.7 million. The only saving graces for these underperforming films is that both “Kick-Ass 2”, “Jobs”, and “Paranoia” cost so little that there’s still chance they’ll turn a profit due to foreign markets.

Besides “The Butler,” the only ones cheering at the box office were holdovers such as last week’s number one, Elysium which brought in $13.6 million and “We’re the Millers” starring Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston which grossed $17.8 million to hold on to second place for the week.

“Elysium” edges “The Millers” for top spot

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Audiences decided to spread the wealth this weekend, but Matt Damon and Jodie Foster came out on top.

“Elysium” starring Matt Damon captured the top of a crowded box office this week with a slightly underwhelming take of $30.5 million. Analysts had expected something in the neighborhood of $35 million from director Neill Blomkamp whose 2009 surprise hit “District 9” struck box office gold. It wasn’t all bad news for the sci-fi film starring Damon as a terminally ill rebel who has to invade a private space community in the 21st century. “Elysium” brought in $10.9 million overseas with Russia leading the charge with $6.8 million. There are still plenty of foreign markets left, so Elysium’s story is far from over.

Opening in second place was dysfunctional road trip comedy “Meet the Millers” starring Jason Sudeikis as a pot dealer who recruits a family to sneak a cannibis filled RV into the US from Mexico. Co-starring Jennifer Aniston, the laugher brought in $26.6 million for the weekend and a hefty $38 million for it’s Wednesday-Sunday opening.

Despite originally being meant as a direct to video release, “Planes” earned an encouraging $22.5 milion in its debut for Disney. It wasn’t a Pixar release, but the “Cars” spinoff starring Dane Cook helped tighten the box office race and is easily on the way to making back its $50 million budget.

Another family film with a less than stellar thriller was “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.” The myth and magic crowd only brought the sequel $14.6 million over the weekend, but its global total was boosted by a $9.8 injection from overseas. Rounding out the top 5 was “2 Guns”s starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg which cashed in $11.1 million in its second week.

“The Wolverine” Slices its Way Past Competition

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Fox let the claws come out this weekend.

The X-Men spin-off “The Wolverine” brought in $55 million for the weekend, easily cutting its rivals down to size. The superhero film starring Hugh Jackman paled into comparison; however, to the 2009 “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” which brought in $85 million in its debut. In fact, “The Wolverine” may end up being the weakest opening of the X-Men films. The 2000 “X-Men” opened to only $54.4 million. Nevertheless, Fox was happy just to have a legit hit on his hands following rivals recent big budget flops such as “White House Down” and “The Lone Ranger” and the recent “R.I.P.D.” Everyone’s favorite mutton-chopped mutant was definitely super in foreign markets where it pulled in $86 million in box office receipts.

Last week’s top film “The Conjuring” fell 47%, but managed to hold on to second place bringing in $22.1 million for the week. Universal’s “Despicable Me 2” proved that bad guys can make big bucks with $16 million in gross receipts to capture the #3 spot for he week. So far, the animated sequel has brought in $306 million.

Another animated film is doing far less, but still bringing in the kids is Dreamworks “Turbo”. It’s managed to eke out $13.3 million in it’s second week. Adam Sandler’s “Grown Ups 2” rounds out the top 5 with $11.5 million.

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