The big box-office news, I guess, is that neither Need for Speed nor Tyler Perry’s The Single Moms Club did especially well this weekend, grossing $17.8 million and $8.3 million, respectively, to open in third and fifth place while Mr. Peabody and Sherman pulled a second-weekend gross of $21.2 million, allowing it to flip places with last week’s top title 300: Rise of an Empire.
I’m more heartened by the fact that The Grand Budapest Hotel and Veronica Mars made it into the Top 10 at all, since they’re both effectively limited-release titles. Grand Budapest is only on 66 screens in North America, as part of Fox Searchlight’s platform strategy, while Veronica Mars received minimal play due to Warner’s day-and-date VOD release plan.
But they’re both very good movies with considerable fan bases, and certainly the fact that people bought $2 million worth of tickets to see Veronica Mars when it was readily available on iTunes as an eight-dollar rental is awfully encouraging. Some movies are just more fun with a crowd.