'Butler' Cleans Up, 'Jobs' Doesn't Work
This weekend's box office was filled with an array of newcomers, only one of which, Lee Daniels' The Butler, succeeded in its opening weekend.
The historical film, starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey amongst others in an ensemble cast, grossed an estimated $25 million domestic this weekend, beating out comedy We're The Millers (2nd: $17.1 million, $68.8 million) by a generous margin.
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Also opening this weekend was the action sequel Kick-Ass 2 (3rd: 13.6 million), which exceeded the action sci-fi film Elysium (4th: $13.4 million, $55.7 million), starring Matt Damon, by $200,000 in its second weekend. The film's predecessor, Kick-Ass, grossed $96 million worldwide in 2010.
On a very average summer weekend at the box office, all eyes were on Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' biopic Jobs, which opened in wide-release on Friday.
Straddled by generally negative reviews from the critics and disapproval from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the drama, starring Ashton Kutcher as the late Jobs, opened to measly numbers, pulling in a mere $6.7 million domestic and finishing seventh in the box-office results.
Also seeing disappointingly low numbers for its opening was the thriller, Paranoia, which missed the Top 10 with a paltry $3.6-million opening for the Liam Hemsworth, Harrison Ford film.
Amid a flock of mild box-office performers in the Top 10, X-Men sequel The Wolverine continued to add to its strong numbers in its fourth weekend of release.
With an additional $4.4 million this weekend, the Hugh Jackman film is up to $120.4 million domestic. The action film has now reaped over $335 million worldwide.