Weekend Estimates: Cinderella Comes to Ball with $70 Million or so

March 15, 2015

Cinderella poster

Disney’s live action remake of Cinderella dominates this weekend’s box office chart with an opening that the studio is projecting will hit $70 million. That’s probably a little on the high side, based on the numbers we’re seeing, but the film will certainly be in the high 60s, which will comfortably put it in the top 10 weekends in March. By way of comparison, it’s a long way short of the $116 million opening enjoying by Alice in Wonderland during 3D’s heyday back in 2010; it’s a bit back from Oz the Great and Powerful’s $79 million start in 2013; and almost exactly on par with the $69 million pulled in by Maleficent last year. Maleficent opened in late May last year, while the other two opened in March, during school Spring Break season. The numbers suggest that Disney will continue to recycle old material in new ways in years to come. Indeed, Spring 2016 will see not one, but two more franchise recycles, with The Jungle Book and Through the Looking Glass already slated for release.

Run All Night takes second place this weekend with a modest $11 million debut for Warner Bros.. That’s a little behind the $12.8 million start posted by A Walk Among the Tombstones in September last year, but about in line with expectations.

The best performer among returning movies this weekend is once more Kingsman: The Secret Service, which will decline around 25% to $6.2 million for the weekend and $107.4 million in total. Its continued strong legs did Run All Night no favors.

In limited release, It Follows is the top performer by a healthy margin. It will earn about $160,000 from four theaters for an average around $40,000 per venue. The horror movie is getting excellent reviews, and could become something of a breakout hit. Other standouts in very limited release are documentary Seymour: An Introduction, re-release Tales of Hoffmann and French drama 3 Hearts. Each will earn about $10,000 on average from two, two and one theater respectively.

- Weekend Estimates

Bruce Nash,

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Cinderella, Run All Night, It Follows, Seymour: An Introduction, 3 coeurs, Tales of Hoffmann