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’42’ Scores No. 1 at Box Office

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America loves a good sports movie and audiences helped make the baseball biopic 42 the number one film this weekend, with $27 million in ticket sales.

The movie garnered an A+ from audiences via Cinemascore and seems to be universally praised by audiences and a majority of critics. It’s not clear what the long play is for a movie like 42. Sentimental movies like 42 usually stick around a while, fueled by older audiences who are looking for an alternative to the loud spectacles cramming the local cineplex.

The Scary Movie franchise has seen better days, financially speaking. Creatively, it’s always been pretty terrible. The fifth entry into this creatively bankrupt excuse for comedy barely mustered $15 million. This is the second horror movie spoof this year (the other being the truly wretched A Haunted House) and thankfully audiences seem beleaguered with this lazy, uninspired slapstick comedy.

The Croods continue to hold strong with $13 million. Being the only option for families at cinemas is definitely working in its favor. Unless you count Evil Dead, which plummeted all the way to fifth place with a hard drop to $9 million. Sandwiched between the two was G.I. Joe: Retaliation which brought in another $10 million. Evil Dead’s plus 60 percent drop is pretty typical for R-rated horror films, which tend to be extremely front loaded.

Next weekend sees the field clear for Tom Cruise and the sci-fi epic Oblivion. It’ll be interesting to see how Cruise fares, as he could really use a box office hit that doesn’t have the words “Mission: Impossible” in the title. After Rock of Ages and Jack Reacher last year, Cruise is hoping for a better 2013.

Here’s the top films for North America:

1. 42
Weekend Estimate: $27 million

2. Scary Movie 5
Weekend Estimate: $15 million

3. The Croods
Weekend Estimate: $13 million; $142 million total

4. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Weekend Estimate: $10 million; $102 million total

5. Evil Dead
Weekend Estimate: $9 million; $41 million total

Source: flickeringmyth.com

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