Hugh Jackman’s sixth appearance as Marvel superhero Wolverine has earned him the number one spot at the weekend box office. The Wolverine earned $55 million at the North American box office while earning an additional $86.1 million overseas. Thanks to the film’s overseas box office success, The Wolverine has surpassed its production cost and is already making a profit.
“It’s a huge opening for the clawed one,” Chris Aronson, 20th Century Fox’s vice president of domestic distribution, said. “It played equally well from Maine to Maui.
James Wan’s low budget horror/thriller The Conjuring was bumped down to second place, but still earned an additional $22.1 million over the weekend. The film, based on true events the occurred at a Harrisville, Rhode Island farmhouse in 1971, has grossed $83.8 million at the North American box office in its first two weeks. Internationally, The Conjuring has earned an additional $12.1 million. The film’s budget was a measly $20 million.
The Steve Carell-fronted Despicable Me 2 added $16 million to its $306 million North American box office total. The film has already surpassed the half-billion mark with over $660 million in box office receipts worldwide. Fox’s slow earning film Turbo took fourth place in its sophomore week with only $13.3 million, bringing its worldwide box office total to $97 million. Turbo has yet to recoup its $135 million budget (not including promotional costs). Adam Sandler’s hilarious comedy Grown Ups 2 took in $11.5 million to earn it the #5 spot.
A film of special note is Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. The film opened to only six screens across the country but earned a remarkable $612,767. That is an average of $102,128 dollars per screen and makes it “one of the biggest opening per-theater averages ever for a non-animated film,” says Hollywood.com’s Paul Dergarabedian.
This weekend’s box office success can be attributed to ticket sales increasing by almost 30% compared to the same weekend last year. “It was a good weekend to be a moviegoer because the choices just got a lot more interesting,” Dergarabedian added.
