With an audience that was 75 percent women, the revenge comedy “The Other Woman” knocked “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” out of the top spot at the box office that it had held for the past three weeks with a No. 1 opening estimated at $24.7 million this weekend.
It wasn’t close. Disney’s Marvel superhero sequel finished second with $16 million, ahead of Sony’s Christian drama “Heaven Is for Real,” which held strongly in its second week for third with $13.8 million and raised its domestic total to nearly $52 million.
No one at Disney was shedding tears for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which is now the highest-grossing April release of all time with $225 million domestically, and has taken in $645 million globally, more than “Iron Man 2.” The studio also was celebrating “Frozen,” which is the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, and this weekend became the sixth Disney film to top $400 million domestically,
“Brick Mansions,” the action movie starring the late Paul Walker, opened in fifth place behind Fox’s family film “Rio 2” with $9.6 million. The weekend’s other wide opener, Lionsgate’s low-budget horror film “The Quiet Ones,” flopped with a three-day total of $4 million.
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Laughs and movies for women have been in short supply in the movie marketplace for the past couple of months, and “The Other Woman” delivered both. Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton starred as a wife and two mistresses wreaking havoc on a three-timing spouse, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of TV’s “Game of Thrones.” Nick Cassavetes directed “The Other Woman,” which was scripted by Melissa Stack and produced by Julie Yorn. Nicki Minaj and Don Johnson co-starred.
“The Other Woman” exceeded the expectations of the analysts and the studio, which had projected an opening in the high-teen millions. The critics weren’t keen on it (25 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes), but the audience — three quarters female and 65 percent over the age of 25 — gave it a decent “B+” CinemaScore.
“I think audiences were clearly ready for a movie like this,” Spencer Klein, Senior Vice President, General Sales Manager at Fox, told TheWrap. “The three female leads were a huge draw.”
Fox is hoping the “The Other Woman” can broaden its audience and provide a counter-programming alternative to superhero fare over the next few weeks. The summer movie season kicks off in earnest on Friday, with the arrival of another Marvel sequel, Sony’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”
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The opening for the Relativity Media-distributed “Brick Mansions,” from Luc Besson‘s EuropaCorp and Transfilm International, was in line with expectations for the $28 million English-language remake of the French film “Banlieue 13.”
Written by Besson, the PG-13 action film features Walker as an undercover cop who teams with an ex-convict to save a dystopian Detroit from destruction. David Belle reprises his role as the ex-con in “Brick Mansions,” which marks the directing debut of Camille Delamarre.
The absence of Walker, who died in November 2013 in a fiery crash while on break from shooting “Fast & Furious 7,” made marketing “Brick Mansions” tricky, but Relativity said Sunday it was pleased with the release.
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“We delivered Paul’s fans the type of action movie that he loved and was known for around the world,” said a spokesman. In honor of Walker’s memory, Relativity and EuropaCorp have made a donation to Walker’s charity, Reach Out WorldWide.
“The Quiet Ones,” which starred Jared Harris of TV’s “Mad Men,” Sam Claifin (“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”) and Olivia Cooke (TV’s “Bates Motel”), couldn’t get any traction. The PG-13 tale of a London college professor experimenting on a young girl with a scary secret received a “C+” CinemaScore from from audiences.
It’s been a tough year for horror films, with “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones,” “Devil’s Due” and “Oculus” all underwhelming at the box office before “The Quiet Ones.”
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Things didn’t improve for the Johnny Depp sci-fi thriller “Transcendence,” which took in just over $4 million. That’s a roughly 65 percent drop from last weekend’s limp $10.8 million debut, which extended the actor’s box-office losing streak and was a major loss for producer Alcon Entertainment. Its domestic total is at $18.4 million.
The young-adult sci-fi tale “Divergent,” the Disneynature documentary “Bears” and “A Haunted House 2” rounded out the top ten.
Pure Flix Entertainment’s faith-based drama “God’s Not Dead” fell off the leaders list, but raised its domestic total to more than $52 million. That’s not bad for a movie that cost $5 million to make.
