Box Office Estimates May 24-26, 2013

What a weekend for Fast & Furious 6 as it had the third highest weekend worldwide gross of all time with $252 million and the biggest May opening 3-day weekend ever.  This is even more remarkable considering that it didn't cross $100 million in the United States, the support worldwide for these movies is breathtaking.  Meanwhile, The Hangover: Part III had a pretty disappointing opening, making less than 50% of what The Hangover: Part II made it's opening weekend.  Epic finished up 4th this week falling behind Star Trek Into Darkness in it's second week, but ahead of Iron Man 3 in it's 4 week.  Speaking of Iron Man 3, it officially moved up to the 5th biggest movie all-time with $1.14 billion, it's about $200 million behind 4th place, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Next week, After Earth and Now You See Me open up.  After Earth has the most potential to make some bank this weekend considering the Will Smith star power, but I could easily see both of these movies having pretty soft openings considering all of the other choices available.

1	N	Fast & Furious 6	Uni.	$98,528,000	-	3,658	-	$26,935	$98,528,000	$160	1
2	N	The Hangover Part III	WB	$42,415,000	-	3,555	-	$11,931	$54,204,000	$103	1
3	1	Star Trek Into Darkness	Par.	$38,000,000	-45.8%	3,907	+39	$9,726	$146,827,000	$190	2
4	N	Epic	Fox	$34,200,000	-	3,882	-	$8,810	$34,200,000	$100	1
5	2	Iron Man 3	BV	$19,424,000	-45.7%	3,424	-813	$5,673	$367,506,000	$200	4
6	3	The Great Gatsby (2013)	WB	$13,705,000	-42.8%	3,090	-460	$4,435	$114,432,000	$105	3
7	8	Mud	RAtt.	$1,928,000	-13.7%	712	-248	$2,708	$14,535,000	-	5
8	6	42	WB	$1,245,000	-55.7%	915	-1,465	$1,361	$91,049,000	$40	7
9	5	The Croods	Fox	$1,215,000	-59.8%	1,008	-1,365	$1,205	$179,238,000	$135	10
10	7	Oblivion	Uni.	$815,000	-65.1%	572	-1,505	$1,425	$87,280,000	$120	6

Credit goes to BoxOfficeMojo.com for the table and numbers. 

Box Office Estimates May 17-19, 2013

Star Trek Into Darkness opened up with $84 million over the 4 days this weekend, which ended up being right about the same amount as the first one made, probably a little disappointing for JJ Abrams' and crew.  Iron Man 3 moved up to 9th all time worldwide for box office gross, passing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and being about $11 million behind The Dark Knight Rises for 8th, which it should easily surpass next weekend.

Opening up next weekend are Fast and Furious 6, The Hangover: Part III, and Epic and it should be an interesting week to see who tops the box office.  Sadly, Star Trek's stay on top looks to be brief as The Hangover Part II made $85 million opening weekend and Fast Five made $86 million when it opened.  I'm sure it'll be really tight between those two for first and second place.  Not sure how well Epic is going to do because there doesn't seem to be as strong of a marketing campaign behind it, but seemed to do well opening overseas last weekend.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	Star Trek Into Darkness	Par.	$70,555,000	-	3,868	-	$18,241	$84,091,000	$190	1
2	1	Iron Man 3	BV	$35,182,000	-51.5%	4,237	-16	$8,304	$337,073,000	$200	3
3	2	The Great Gatsby (2013)	WB	$23,415,000	-53.2%	3,550	+15	$6,596	$90,159,000	$105	2
4	3	Pain and Gain	Par.	$3,100,000	-38.0%	2,429	-874	$1,276	$46,574,000	$26	4
5	7	The Croods	Fox	$2,750,000	-23.8%	2,373	-277	$1,159	$176,750,000	$135	9
6	5	42	WB	$2,730,000	-40.5%	2,380	-550	$1,147	$88,735,000	$40	6
7	6	Oblivion	Uni.	$2,222,000	-46.0%	2,077	-693	$1,070	$85,500,000	$120	5
8	8	Mud	RAtt.	$2,160,000	-14.9%	960	+108	$2,250	$11,588,000	-	4
9	4	Tyler Perry Presents Peeples	LGF	$2,150,000	-53.4%	2,041	-	$1,053	$7,858,000	$15	2
10	9	The Big Wedding	LGF	$1,100,000	-55.8%	1,443	-855	$762	$20,198,000	$35	4

Credit goes to BoxOfficeMojo.com for the table and numbers. 

Box Office Estimates May 10-12, 2013

Iron Man 3 unsurprisingly topped the box office again this weekend raking in another $72 million, bringing it's total gross to a very impressive estimated $284 million in just the United States over the past 9 days. Boy was I way off on my projections for this week, thinking that Peeples could take The Great Gatsby at the box office as Gatsby dominated the 2-hole pulling in around $51 million, while Peeples took fourth with just $4.8 million, maybe the Tyler Perry fascination is coming to an end, we can only hope.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens up next Thursday and should be able to overtake Iron Man 3 in it's third weekend.

1	1	Iron Man 3	BV	$72,472,000	-58.4%	4,253	-	$17,040	$284,893,000	$200	2
2	N	The Great Gatsby (2013)	WB	$51,115,000	-	3,535	-	$14,460	$51,115,000	-	1
3	2	Pain and Gain	Par.	$5,000,000	-33.4%	3,303	+16	$1,514	$41,608,000	$26	3
4	N	Tyler Perry Presents Peeples	LGF	$4,850,000	-	2,041	-	$2,376	$4,850,000	$15	1
5	3	42	WB	$4,650,000	-23.2%	2,930	-415	$1,587	$84,732,000	$40	5
6	4	Oblivion	Uni.	$3,864,000	-31.5%	2,770	-660	$1,395	$81,655,000	$120	4
7	5	The Croods	Fox	$3,600,000	-14.3%	2,650	-265	$1,358	$173,215,000	$135	8
8	6	The Big Wedding	LGF	$2,500,000	-35.6%	2,298	-335	$1,088	$18,288,000	$35	3
9	7	Mud	RAtt.	$2,343,000	+8.4%	854	+278	$2,744	$8,363,000	-	3
10	8	Oz The Great and Powerful	BV	$802,000	-62.0%	774	-386	$1,036	$229,985,000	$215	10

Credit goes to BoxOfficeMojo.com for the table and numbers. 

Episode 56 Notes

Here are the official show notes for Episode 56: Suspension Times at Ridgemont High.  We start off the show talking about Mother's Day and what interesting stuff happened in our lives this week.

Top Box Office: May 3-5, 2013 Studio Estimates

While it's not suprising that Iron Man 3 dominated the box office this week, what is surprising is that it brought in the second highest gross in US film history this weekend with a whopping $175.3 million at the box office.  Avengers is number one still with a $207.4 million opening weekend.

Opening next weekend are The Great Gatsby and Peeples.  I would count on Iron Man 3 carrying it's positive buzz and taking the top spot in the box office again next week.  I wouldn't be surprised if Peeples was number 2 since Tyler Perry's audiences always seem to support his movies strong, especially opening weekend, and for The Great Gatsby to be disappointed with a third place opening.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	Iron Man 3	BV	$175,300,000	-	4,253	-	$41,218	$175,300,000	$200	1
2	1	Pain and Gain	Par.	$7,600,000	-62.5%	3,287	+10	$2,312	$33,919,000	$26	2
3	3	42	WB	$6,210,000	-41.7%	3,345	-60	$1,857	$78,336,000	$40	4
4	2	Oblivion	Uni.	$5,797,000	-67.4%	3,430	-362	$1,690	$75,969,000	$120	3
5	5	The Croods	Fox	$4,225,000	-37.2%	2,915	-368	$1,449	$168,743,000	$135	7
6	4	The Big Wedding	LGF	$3,875,000	-49.0%	2,633	-	$1,472	$14,210,000	$35	2
7	11	Mud	RAtt.	$2,150,000	-3.0%	576	+213	$3,733	$5,158,000	-	2
8	13	Oz The Great and Powerful	BV	$1,822,000	+0.6%	1,160	-450	$1,571	$228,568,000	$215	9
9	7	Scary Movie 5	W/Dim.	$1,435,000	-58.2%	1,857	-876	$773	$29,603,000	$20	4
10	9	The Place Beyond the Pines	Focus	$1,298,000	-52.4%	1,162	-422	$1,117	$18,678,000	$15	6

Credit goes to BoxOfficeMojo.com for the table and numbers. 

Episode 55 Notes

Here are the official show notes for Episode 55: You Won't Hear It Coming. We start off this episode talking about calendar related content, Star Wars Day and Cinco De Mayo.

Movie Review: Iron Man 3

Obviously, one of the main focuses of Episode 55 of the AB Conversation podcast is Iron Man 3, so if you want to hear Anthony and I discuss this movie check that out.  One of my "New Year Pod Resolutions" is to do more written content for the website, including movie reviews.  I figure the only way I can get better at writing movie reviews and hopefully expanding the brevity of the podcast is by actually writing movie reviews, so let's go.



This summer movie season started off with a bang as Marvel Films knows how to make a blockbuster that sets the bar for all other movies in the summer months, in other words Tyler Perry Present's Peeples has some mighty stiff competition in Iron Man 3. Iron Man 3 continues the story of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who is still recovering from the alien attack on New York and has replaced the partying part of his life with his obsession of being Iron Man and creating new sets of armor.  Meanwhile, the villain in this movie, The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) begins taking over the television airwaves nationwide claiming responsibility for a number of bombing incidents. When The Mandarin's latest bombing attack becomes personal to Tony Stark, the battle between Iron Man and the mysterious villain known as The Mandarin is on.

I regard the first Iron Man movie as one of the best comic book films of all time along with The Dark Knight and The Avengers, but was a little disappointed with Iron Man 2.  With this one changing directors from Jon Favreau (who still appears in the movie as Happy Hogan) to Shane Black, I was excited to see the franchise take on a different direction.  Shane Black has wrote some awesome movies like The Monster Squad, Lethal Weapon, and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (which put Robert Downey Jr back on the map and earned him the role as Iron Man).  Due to Black's propensity for action comedies, I was expecting this to be an even more lighthearted than Favreau's which had a good sense of humor to them as well, and I was not mistaken.  This is easily the funniest of the Marvel films as Tony Stark is firing out one liners like photon blasts.  Iron Man 3 may also have some of the best action sequences of any Marvel movie to date, or at least right up there with The Avengers, the sheer destruction that takes place is impressive.

I only had a few minor quibbles with Iron Man 3, the first being that it didn't set up any of the upcoming movies in Phase 2 of the Marvel films.  The first Iron Man had that epic moment at the end of the movie where Nick Fury showed up and movie history was set into place and Iron Man 2 had more Nick Fury as well as the debut of the Black Widow.  While this keeps the rich history alive, it does nothing to push Phase 2 into hyperdrive or set up Avengers 2.  The 3D was added in post and therefore doesn't really do much to add to the movie, if I were you I would just hold onto the surcharge amount and see the movie in 2D.  You would think in a big action blockbuster like this, something would stand out of the 3D, but sadly it does not.  While I liked the music for the most part, those that are expecting to hear AC/DC blasting when Iron Man makes an appearance will be sorely disappointed.

Writing a review about this movie is pretty pointless because pretty much everybody that wants to see this movie is going to hit the theaters and see it opening weekend and those that aren't probably aren't all that interested in the first place.  If you are an inbetweener, I highly suggest checking it out as it works great as an action-comedy as well as a superhero flick.  The exchanges between Tony Stark and James Rhodes, harken you back to the dialogue between Riggs and Murtaugh.  While the duo of villains were quality actors in the second Iron Man (Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell), I was blown away by how they handled The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pierce).  Ben Kingsley gives an amazing performance and his performance is reason alone to see this movie. Also a big kudos to Ty Simpkins' character Harley who plays off of Tony Stark so well and provides a ton of laughs and also Paul Bettany who never gets his due as the awesome voice of Jarvis. 

This action packed thrill ride is full of laughs and keeps re-inventing itself throughout.  While the there are still some contract issues to be sorted out and this very much ends the Iron Man trilogy, I would be very disappointed and surprised if this is the last we see of Tony Stark on the big screen.

4.5 Stars out of 5

If you like this movie, I recommend:



Read the comic book, the Extremis storyline in this movie is based on.

Iron Man 3 Trailer

Here’s the newest trailer for Iron Man 3, coming out in theaters in just under 2 months!  I couldn’t be more excited!