We Americans love our leftovers.
Oh, we claim that’s not true. We say we like something “new” and “fresh.” But when you look at what we actually buy—well, it’s often just the same stuff we’ve liked before. Just reheated.
Take this weekend’s crop of movies, for example. The biggest flick in the land was Think Like a Man Too, sequel to 2012’s surprise hit Think Like a Man. Audiences liked it better than leftover Thanksgiving turkey, shoveling an estimated $30 million at Kevin Hart and company and pushing the flick to the top of the box office.
It beat out, naturally, another sequel. 22 Jump Street—a week removed from its own box office triumph—showed all the yummy resilience of a half-eaten pizza in a college dorm, clearing $29 million and slipping only to second place.
Staring down such fearsome opposition, How to Train Your Dragon 2 felt positively … toothless. Not that it was a disaster: The weekend’s third-most-successful sequel grossed $25.3 million and fluttered down to third place. It’s made $95 million already in its two-week run, and it should have a little flap in its wings yet.
In the face of such sequellian might (yes, I just made that word up), newcomer Jersey Boys could only muster $13.5 million this weekend—a doo-wop disappointment. It’s the first non-sequel on our list, but you’d think that Jersey Boys—a Clint Eastwood-helmed take on the hit Broadway musical—would’ve felt enough like a leftover to appeal to the American public. Alas for Warner Brothers, our eyes did not adore it. In fact, I’d imagine the showing might’ve been enough to make big girls cry. It’s times like these, however, when it’s important to walk like a man, not shake like a rag doll.
Disney’s mighty Maleficent—itself a re-imagining of the classic Sleeping Beauty—continued to impress. The horned queen pocketed another $13 million in that black dress of hers.
Yes, we do like our leftovers. But do we like ’em for the fourth time? I guess we’ll find out next week, when Transformers: Age of Extinction comes to town.
Final figures update: 1. Think Like a Man Too, $29.2 million; 2. 22 Jump Street, $27.4 million; 3. How to Train Your Dragon 2, $24.7 million; 4. Jersey Boys, $13.3 million; 5. Maleficent, $12.9 million.
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