BOX OFFICE: ELYSIUM Takes The Top Spot With $30.5 Million In Another Crowded Weekend
In yet another crowded weekend at the North American box office, several high profile releases found themselves earning nowhere near as much as expected. While Neil Blomkamp's Elysium is far from a flop, it too hasn't performed as well as the studio were hoping. Read on for details on that and more!
We're The Millers was the surprise hit this weekend thanks to a five day total of over $38 million, but it didn't quite perform well enough over the past three days to steal the top spot from Elysium. While Sony were banking on the sci-fi movie making upwards of $35 million, it fell short with a so-so $30.5 million total. Back in 2009, District 9 actually had a $37.4 million debut, but didn't face off against anywhere near as much competition. A 'B' CinemaScore for Elysium also didn't help word of mouth as the weekend went on. Disney's Cars spin-off Plans had a debut of $22.5 million, far from its predicted $30 million. However, that's still not a bad result for a movie which was originally set to go straight to DVD. The biggest loser this weekend was Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters which earned a disappointing $23.5 million total after opening on Wednesday, including a weekend gross of $14.6 million. That's a long way behind the $38.7 million earned by the first Percy Jackson.
In the year 2159 two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes (Jodie Foster), a hard line government official will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn't stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max (Matt Damon) is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that if successful will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.
STARRING:
Matt Damon as Max Da Costa
Jodie Foster as Secretary Delacourt
Sharlto Copley as Kruger
Wagner Moura as Spider
Alice Braga as Frey
Diego Luna as Julio
William Fichtner as John Carlyle
Faran Tahir as Minister Patel
RELEASE DATE: August 9th, 2013.