Box Office: Oz the Great and Powerful Repeats; Halle Berry's The Call Surprises

Franco fantasy wins weekend with $42.2 mil; Franco scores again with Selena Gomez's Spring Breakers; Berry thriller trumps Steve Carell's Burt Wonderstone

By Joal Ryan Mar 17, 2013 5:38 PMTags
E! Placeholder Image

James Franco's Oz the Great and Powerful was again, you know, great and powerful at the weekend box office, grossing an estimated $42.2 million.

Halle Berry's The Call, meanwhile, showed surprising strength, while Steve Carell's The Incredible Burt Wonderstone underwhelmed.

In its second weekend, Oz held very well. With some $282 million in the worldwide bank, the film is now even bigger than its reputed budget (which was very big).

The Call took second place with a $17.1 million Friday-Sunday. The thriller, made for a reported $15 million, was graded a B-plus by audiences polled by CinemaScore, and is Berry's biggest opener for a non-X-Men movie in nearly a decade, going all the way back to Gothika.

The reputedly $32 million Burt Wonderstone, playing on about 600 more screens than The Call, whiffed with $10.3 million. It is Carell's worst opener for a Carell comedy (so, no, not including the comedy-drama Seeking a Friend at the End of the World) since he became a big-screen star in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

Burt Wonderstone's CinemaScore was just as discouraging: a C-plus.

Art-house moviegoers, meanwhile, were hot to see Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens shed their Disney ears. The actresses' R-rated indie thriller, costarring Franco, put up the weekend's biggest reported per-screen average, grossing $270,000 from three theaters.

Elsewhere, Silver Linings Playbook neared $125 million domestically and A Good Day to Die Hard topped $200 million internationally.

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday studio estimates and stats as compiled by Exhibitor Relations.

  1. Oz the Great and Powerful, $42.2 million
  2. The Call, $17.1 million
  3. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, $10.3 million
  4. Jack the Giant Slayer, $6.2 million
  5. Identity Thief, $4.8 million
  6. Snitch, $3.5 million
  7. 21 and Over, $2.6 million
  8. Silver Linings Playbook, $2.59 million
  9. Safe Haven, $2.5 million
  10. Escape From Planet Earth, $2.3 million