You could say that our pain was Paramount Pictures’ gain this weekend.
Paramount’s kinda-sorta truthy dark comedy Pain & Gain, starring Mark Wahlberg, muscled its way to the top of the box office, flexing its box office biceps with a $20 million gross and clean-and-jerking the weekend’s crown over its steroid-addled head. Sure, Plugged In didn’t like the thing. “Tell me again what’s funny about torture, murder and barbecuing human remains?” wrote our intrepid reviewer Adam Holz. But the trailers didn’t really mention the whole barbecuing thing, and audiences traipsed into the theaters en masse. Or, at least, what qualifies for en masse before the summer movie season launches in earnest.
If Oblivion had been able to replicate its first weekend gross, it would’ve bested Wahlberg and company and taken its second straight win. Alas, it lost about 53% of its audience and had to settle for a second place, $17.4 million finish.
The inspirational biopic 42 slid into third with a $10.7 million weekend, spoiling The Big Wedding on its opening weekend. The star-spangled, R-rated romantic comedy was jilted by audiences, making just $7.5 million. Its makers could well be crying in their own punchbowls right about now.
The Croods, now in its sixth week, still showed remarkable resiliency for a troupe of animated Cro-Magnons. Its $6.6 million take was enough for the film to snag fifth place and brought its 2013 total take to a nice, tidy $163 million.
Of course, that total could look a bit puny next week with the coming of Iron Man 3—the first big dog of the summer movie season. The superhero flick made the equivalent of $195.3 million overseas in its first weekend out of the gate, leading some to believe that its domestic opening could be truly titanic. As a number of armor-plated nemeses have learned over the years, you don’t mess with Tony Stark when he straps on a metal suit.
Final figures update: 1. Pain & Gain, $20.4 million; 2. Oblivion, $17.8 million; 3. 42, $10.7 million; 4. The Big Wedding, $7.6 million; 5. The Croods, 6.7 million..
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