It was a tough week for new openers, as four wide release debuts failed to topple last week’s box office champ — or even crack the No. 2 spot.
The Judd Apatow-produced comedy “The Five-Year Engagement” pulled in just $3.5 million on Friday, placing it in third behind holdovers “Think Like a Man” ($5.5 million) and “The Lucky One” ($3.9 million). “Engagement” — starring Jason Segel and directed by Nicholas Stoller — should end up with around $10 million for the weekend, while “Man” will likely earn about $16 million. So far, that film’s domestic gross is an impressive $48 million.
Universal must be feeling disappointed by “Engagement’s” performance. In 2008, the same team’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” made $17.7 million opening weekend.
Meanwhile, “Hunger Games” came in at No. 4 on Friday, hunting down another $2.9 million. The domestic cume for that film is now at a staggering $364 million.
Other new titles were even less lucky, and are likely to shift around by the end of the weekend. The animated “Pirates! Band of Misfists” collected $2.7 million in booty, while Jason Staham’s “Safe” and the John Cusack thriller “The Raven” were neck-and-neck with around $2.5 million each.
The family-friendly “Pirates!” could end up pulling further ahead over the rest of the weekend. With parents and kids seeing the film during the day Saturday and Sunday, “Pirates!” will probably end up with between $10 million and $12 million for the three-day.
Next week sees the arrival of the Marvel superhero smorgasbord “The Avengers.”
Look for updated weekend estimates Sunday on HitFix.