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It's heady company. Just don't look for this weekend's new
releases to number among those ranks. "Keanu," an action-comedy
sendup from Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, nabbed third
place with $9.3 million across 2,658 screens. The weak result is
alleviated somewhat by the fact that the Warner Bros./New Line
release cost a meager $15 million to produce. The film finds the
stars of Comedy Central's "Key & Peele" trying to rescue a
kidnapped kitten. Reviews were strong, which could help the
picture in the coming weeks when the competition gets fiercer.
Open Road's "Mother's Day," an ensemble romantic comedy with
Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis, collapsed at
the multiplexes, eking out $8.3 million across 3,035 locations
to finish in fourth. That could spell the end for director Garry
Marshall's lucrative "throw a bunch of stars at a holiday"
franchise -- a collection of films that also encompassed
"Valentine's Day" and "New Year's Eve." Don't hold your breath
for "Arbor Day."
And Focus Features' "Ratchet and Clank" struggled to leave an
impression. The adaptation of the video game series about a
fugitive robot and a cat-like alien only managed to pull in $4.8
million from 2,891 locations, marking it as D.O.A.
Analysts and box office watchers weren't expecting a lot from
this crop, but the results were even worse than expected. Going
into the weekend, tracking services had both "Mother's Day" and
"Keanu" debuting to north of $10 million.
"If April is the cruelest month then the last weekend of April
is particularly cruel," said Jeff Bock, an analyst with
Exhibitor Relations. "All three of these films faltered."
Then there were the holdovers. In its second weekend,
Universal's "The Huntsman: Winter's War" dropped 52% to $9.4
million for a second place finish. With $33.9 million in the
bank, this $115 million production is headed to write-down
territory. "Barbershop: The Next Cut" rounded out the top five,
earning $6.1 million and bringing the Warner Bros. and MGM
comedy sequel's domestic total to $44.7 million.
Of course, the whole weekend is really just a throat clearing
for "Captain America: Civil War," which barrels into theaters on
May 6. The superhero sequel could pull in as much as $200
million to score one of the biggest openings in history. It
already made more than $200 million overseas this weekend after
debuting in a select number of foreign territories.
"We're in the eye of the storm," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior
media analyst with ComScore. "We're about to be swept up in the
excitement and huge box office of 'Captain America.'"
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