APEX Hollywood Shortlist: Moses Parts Red Sea and Takes Down Katniss in Busy Weekend B.O.
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- Fox, Exodus: Gods and Kings
Apparently President Snow and the Gamemakers at the Capitol have been going about it all wrong because, if this weekend’s box office results are any indication, all it really took to bring down Katniss Everdeen and company was a burning bush, ten biblical plagues and Christian Bale in a tunic.
After three straight weeks in the number one spot at the box office, Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 fell to second place over the weekend with $12.6M behind Ridley Scott’s sprawling, sword and sandals epic, Exodus: Gods and Kings which debuted in the top spot with $24.1M. And though that sum might not be everything home studio Fox prayed for ˆ’ and is well below the debut of Paramount’s big-screen biblical tale Noah which opened with $43.7M in March ˆ’ Exodus should continue to perform well, especially with faith-based audiences, through Christmas and beyond.
- Paramount, Top Five
Also cracking the top five this weekend was, appropriately enough, Top Five (Paramount) from multi-hyphenate Chris Rock, which opened with $6.8M. Buoyed by great reviews and an all-star cast of comedy kingpins like Tracy Morgan, Cedric the Entertainer and Kevin Hart, Top Five also garnered Critics Choice Award nominations for Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy for Rock and his co-star Rosario Dawson.
In other award season news, last week’s Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Golden Globe nominations gave several smaller films a box office boost as well. The Reese Witherspoon walkabout drama Wild (Fox Searchlight) moved up five spots to take the tenth slot at the box office with $1.5M and The Theory of Everything (Focus Features), Birdman (Fox Searchlight) and The Imitation Game (Weinstein Company) all held their own in an increasingly crowded award season field.
- IFC Films, Boyhood
But perhaps the biggest winner on the specialized front right now is Richard Linklater’s Boyhood (IFC) which has secured Best Picture nominations from virtually every major nominating body to date and continues to perform well with audiences with a very healthy $24M (and counting!) total box office after 23 weeks in theatres.