Sony’s concert docu “One Direction: This Is Us” topped the box-office charts with an $8.9 million bullet in its debut Friday. As you’d guess from their screaming, the band’s fans — legions of teenage girls – gave it an “A” CinemaScore, so word of mouth should build over the weekend.
Two other wide openers – the Selena Gomez-Ethan Hawke thriller “Getaway” and spy thriller “Closed Circuit” – were tanking and may not make the top ten.
They were both trailing “Instructions Not Included,” the Spanish-language family comedy from popular Mexican comic Eugenio Derbez. It opened with $1.9 million Friday from just 347 theaters and its $5,545 per-screen average was the best of any film.
The documentary about the British boy band was easily beating “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” No. 1 for the past two weeks, and was on course to take in around $25 million over the long Labor Day weekend.
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That’s just under the debut of “Michael Jackson’s This is It,” which opened with with a $7.8 million Friday on its way to a $23 million three-day haul in 2009 for Sony.
It went on to become the highest-grossing concert film worldwide ever with more than $260 million, nearly three quarters of which came from overseas. The studio is expecting big things from abroad for “One Direction,” which it is rolling out in 40 foreign countries this weekend.
It wasn’t all teen girls at the multiplexes.
The $3.6 million that “The Butler” took in Friday was off just 23 percent from last week. That puts the Weinstein Co.’s civil rights saga on pace for a four-day total that may top $17 million, and would give the Oprah Winfrey-Forest Whitaker Oscar hopeful a domestic total in the $80 million range after three weeks.
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The raunchy Jennifer Aniston-Jason Sudeikis comedy “We’re the Millers” took in $3.4 million Friday and hit the $100 million mark in its fourth week. New Line and Warner Bros.’ R-rated pot tale remained on a market-high 3,445 theaters and was holding strongly, also down just 23 percent from last week. It should finish the long weekend with around $15 million.
Disney’s animated “Planes” took in $1.7 million Friday and is looking at around $9.5 million for the four days. It’s in its third week and has taken in nearly $65 million domestically. It was running ahead of Sony’s Matt Damon sci-fi film “Elysium,” which was on course for a four-day total of roughly $8 million. Its domestic total is $73 million after four weeks.
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Sony’s teen-targeting action fantasy “Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” was behind them. It took in $1.4 million Friday, a 55 percent drop from last week, and should finish with around $6.5 million for the weekend.
That’s in the same range as “Instructions Not Included,” the PG-13 rated comedy from Lionsgate and Pantelion that targeted the Hispanic market was connecting.
Derbez not only stars but wrote, directed and produced. He plays an Acapulco playboy who heads to L.A. to search for a former fling, who has left a baby on his doorstep. He takes the child with him and they don’t find the mother, but he finds a new life as a Hollywood stuntman, and little Maggie becomes his on-set coach.
The critics hated Warner Bros. “Getaway” – it had upped its positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes to 2 percent by Saturday – and audiences didn’t like it either. It received a “C+” and brought in just $1.4 million Friday, and may not clear $5 million for the four days.
Focus Features’ “Closed Circuit,” starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall, was doing even worse. It brought in a dismal $748,000 from 870 theaters and will struggle to hit $4 million for the holiday weekend.
The Weinstein Company expanded Wong Kar-wai’s martial arts action film “The Grandmaster” from seven theaters to 749 this weekend. The Chinese import brought in $740,000, for a soft $988 per-screen average.