The sequel to the movie based on thrice-married shiny relationship guru Steve Harvey’s self-help book, Think Like A Man, Think Like A Man Too, starring Kevin Hart, Romany Malco, Michael Ealy, and Jerry Ferrara, owned the domestic box office title with $30 million in estimated gross this weekend. Which I like to think of as a classic example of the Turtle Bump. This is Ferrarica, we’re just livin’ in it. TLAMT’s gross was actually down $3 million from the debut of the original in 2012. Can you believe it only took two years to get the sequel greenlit, shot, edited, and released?! It’s almost as if making movies about people dicking around in Vegas isn’t that hard. It managed an A- Cinemascore despite its 22% fresh rating from critics.
22 Jump Street, meanwhile, was just off the lead in second place, dropping only 49% in its second weekend to take $29 million, having now earned almost $150 million worldwide. Now is the time for Lord and Miller to start making ridiculous demands. Seriously, guys, you can get away with anything right now. Get to work on that four-hour vanity project.
The other new release of the weekend was Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys, which grossed $13.5 million of its $40 million gross, which doesn’t seem great, and isn’t, but is still the biggest opening ever for a film that Clint Eastwood directed but didn’t star in.
Mystic River was the exception eleven years ago, as that Boston crime drama won a few Oscars and grossed $90m off a $10m debut weekend. Otherwise, the best case norm is the $37m grosses of Invictus and J. Edgar, and those biopics were year-end Oscar pushes with the likes of Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Jersey Boys has no box office stars and it’s not a year-end prestige picture (the reviews are mixed-negative). That the film opened at all is indeed a testament to the source material, Eastwood’s name, and the utter lack of anything like it in the marketplace right now. [Forbes]
Oh, and the audience was old. Like, older than Leno viewers and Oscar voters put together old.
As somewhat expected, the film played 92% over-25 years old, 84% over 35, and 72% over 50.
72% over 50. Incredible. Entire auditoriums smelling like mothballs. I guess I’m not old yet because I have absolutely no opinion about Jersey Boys. Maybe I’ll see it on a plane someday? It’s on the back burner, just below saving for my retirement.
Next week brings us – ugh – Trans4mers. I’m not sure why Trans4mers even needs to charge admission. I saw at least four ads in a 30-second TV spot for it. There’s so much product placement in it that I think it’s technically an infomercial. They shouldn’t be charging for tickets, they should be giving away a free massage and a golf discount for sitting through it, like a time share presentation.