“The Evil Dead” opened well enough on Friday to make it a likely fifth horror-related film to make #1 in 2013. The twelve top-ranked horror flicks thus far have kept the year’s to-date grosses from falling off more than they might have otherwise due to several underperforming costly would-be tentpoles.
The Sony remake of Sam Raimi’s classic cult 1980s gorefest should prove an easy #1 for the weekend. The combined Thursday night/Friday gross could be the high end of its performance, however. The total will be significantly above its production budget, and even if it falls fast the ultimate worldwide performance and post-theater appeal should make it a solid success.
In second place for the day was the 3-D relaunch of another blast from the past, “Jurassic Park.” Its Friday gross looks to be about the same as that of “Titanic 3D” last year. Two key differences — that reissue opened two days earlier, and it was the Good Friday holiday in 2012 –makes comparisons inexact. Universal heavily promoted this as though it were a first run, so these grosses look at best (before seeing how big the Saturday and Sunday matinee factor might help) somewhat ordinary.
Last week’s #1, Paramount’s “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” could fall to fourth for the weekend. Number three for Friday, it could fall behind DreamWorks Animation/Twentieth Century Fox’s “The Croods” with matinees boosting the latter’s position. Because “Retaliation” is playing much better internationally (a big improvement over the initial installment), it still has a chance to break even.
Two other second-week films — “Temptation” and “The Host” — both took major falls, reinforcing the early 2013 trend of most openers failing to show signs of multi-week success. The total take for the top ten was around $43 million for the day, down from last week’s$53 million (which was boosted by the holiday) but only down slightly from a year ago, which also was Good Friday. The overall weekend though could end up slightly better than last year.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
