User blog:Ceauntay/'Dream' Wins Weekend Box Office

Holdovers "Rango" and "Battle: Los Angeles" beat newcomers "Paul" and "Lincoln Lawyer," which end the weekend in a dead heat.

Amy Tammie starrer I Wanna Live The Dream opened to a better-than-expecting $24 million ($43 million as of Wednesday) at the North American box office in a boast for Warner Bros.' fforay into domestic distrubution.

But business remained soft overall. The other new movies -- Relativity Media’s Bradley Cooper starrer Limitless grossed $19 million. Lionsgate's Matthew McConaughey legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer and Universal's sci-fi comedy Paul -- grossed $13.4 million and $13.2 million, respectively, not quite enough to best holdovers Rango and Battle: Los Angeles. Paramount’s sleeper hit Rango grossed an estimated $15.3 million in its third weekend to come in No. 2. The toon fell a respectable 32%, finishing the weekend with a cume of $92.6 million. Sony’s Battle: LA fell 58% in its second weekend to an estimated $14.6 million for a cume of $60.6 million. The sci-fi action pic placed No. 3. Paul and Lincoln Lawyer were in a dead heat. The race between the two won’t be officially decided until Monday when final numbers are calculated. But what really had Hollywood talking was the continued absence of young people. All three new films skewed older, with 85% of Lincoln Lawyer’s audience over the age of 25. Of those buying tickets for Limitless, 60% were over the age of 25. Even Paul -- targeting fanboys -- played older, with 58% over the age of 25. Lincoln Lawyer drew a strong A- CinemaScore, while Limitless and Paul each earned a B+. Another point of debate was Lionsgate's decision to team with Groupon and offer $6 tickets for Lincoln Lawyer (in some cases it was reportedly $1). Rival studios have complained that the Groupon promotion could inflate grosses, since those tickets are counted at full price. Lionsgate said of the 200,000 coupons purchased, 40,000 were redeemed. That equals about $320,000 in grosses. However, the discount only equals $100,000 in grosses. If the average ticket price is $8, and Groupon customers paid $6, then the lost revenues to Lionsgate was only $2 per ticket. Elsewhere on the top 10 box office chart, Warner Bros.' Red Riding Hood fell 48% in its second weekend to an estimated $7.3 million for a cume of $26 million in its first 10 days. Film placed No. 6. Disney's ill-fated Mars Needs Mom continued to struggle, grossing an estimated $5.3 million in its second weekend for a 10-day domestic cume of $15.4 million. Overseas, the motion-capture toon grossed a soft $3.4 million for an international cume of $7.8 million and worldwide total of $23.2 million. On the specialty side, Focus Features' Jane Eyre successfully expanded to 11 new markets. The film grossed an estimated $477,796 from 26 theaters for a per screen average of $18,377, and domestic cume of $730,901. Next weekend, Jane Eyre will expand into an additional 11 markets. Also expanding in its second weekend, Anchor Bay's mob drama Kill the Irishman grossed an estimated $143,700 from 21 theaters for a location average of $6,842 and cume of $335,698. Sony Pictures Classics' Dutch war film Winter in Wartime opened to an estimated $16,157 from three theaters for a so-so location average of $5,386.