Steve’s Box Office Report: March 2015
Top 10 Films for the Month of March:
1. Cinderella – $201,151,353
2. Home – $177,397,510
3. The Divergent Series: Insurgent – $130,179,072
4. Get Hard – $90,411,453
5. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – $33,078,266
6. Chappie – $31,569,268
7. Run All Night – $26,461,644
8. It Follows – $14,674,076
9. Do You Believe? – $12,985,600
10. The Gunman – $10,664,479
Honorable Mentions:
1. Unfinished Business – $10,219,501
March Winners: Cinderella, Home, the Divergent Series: Insurgent, Get Hard, and the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
We continue on through the year of 2015 as we officially kick off the spring with March, and this year March has quite a decent amount of films that look like they had the potential to have good runs. There was enough variety that could cater to all different types of audiences and because of that, we end up getting a good amount of films from this month that make it into this category. The first film that makes it into this category is the romantic fantasy film Cinderella, a remake of the classic 1950 animated film about a girl who is forced into servitude by her stepfamily only to fall in love with a prince. The film would receive positive reviews from critics who felt it was a faithful re-telling of the classic film, and it would finish with over $201 million which I will delve into later in the review. The next film that makes it into this category is the animated film Home, a film about an alien who is shunned by his race and befriends a teenage girl looking for her mother. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics who felt it was a fine animated film though not a classic, and it would finish with over $177 million which was a strong showing for the film even against Cinderella. The next film that makes it into this category is the next film in the Divergent series, Insurgent, which sees Tris and Four on the run by the Erudite faction as society crumbles in Chicago. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt it was a step down from the previous film, but it did finish with over $130 million which was less than the previous film as the series is limping towards the end. The next film that makes it into this category is the crime comedy film Get Hard, a film about a banking manager who is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and enlists help to prepare for jail. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt it wasted its top stars, but it did finish with over $90 million which was a strong showing for the film. The last film that makes it into this category is the sequel the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a film which follows the first film where the owners of the hotel look to open a second location. The film would receive positive reviews from critics who felt it was a fine film despite being not up to its predecessor, and it would finish with over $33 million which was also less than the original film. While most of the films in this category weren’t particularly liked by critics, they obviously resonated with the mainstream audience hence why they ended up in this category.
March Losers: Run All Night, the Gunman, and Unfinished Business
Even though we did have quite a good amount of winners for this month, we do end up having a few losers as well though it does help we don’t have as many losers as we do winners. While the month did have a diverse number of films that catered to numerous audiences, it seemed like most of the films were geared toward families meaning most of the films geared towards adults ended up in this category. The first film that makes it into this category is the action thriller film Run All Night, a film about a former hitman who goes on the run after he murders the son of a mob boss. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics who felt it was another fine outing for Liam Neeson as an action star, but it would finish with over $26 million which was a weak outing for this film. The next film that makes it into this category is the action thriller film the Gunman, based on the novel which sees a mercenary who becomes targeted by a powerful security firm. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt it was a poor film showcasing an older actor in an action film, and it would finish with over $10 million which was a poor outing though it was just enough to get in the top 10. The last film that makes it into this category is the comedy film Unfinished Business, a film about a small business owner and his two associates who travel to Europe to close a deal only for the trip to go off the rails. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt it was unfunny and uninspiring, and it would finish with over $10 million which led it to be a bomb. There is no doubt that these films suffered from coming out against a bunch of family-oriented films, but they could’ve overcome it though ended up falling flat and it does hurt the month a bit.
The Surprise/Story of March 2015: Live action “Cinderella” remake outduels “Home” to win top spot of March 2015
Going into this month, I had mentioned that there was quite a bit of variety in terms of the films released in that there was something that catered to every part of the audience, but it was pretty clear that the two films that had the most eyes on it were Cinderella and Home though you could also include Insurgent in that as well given how well Divergent performed a year ago. At the end, those three films did the most by taking the top 3 spots of the month and when it was all said and done, Cinderella pulled it out to take the top spot beating out Home by $24 million though Home’s performance shouldn’t be slept on given that it was considered a weaker outing for DreamWorks. It does help that with March being the month of Spring Break, schools were out during that time which helped those three films a lot, and as we see the rest of the films in the month struggled a bit with only Get Hard having a strong showing and the rest pretty much floundered. We will see how this ends up affecting the month in terms of the grade, but the performance of those three films are going to help the month given how well they ended up doing.
Overachiever of March 2015: Cinderella
Prior to this film, we had only had a handful of live-action remakes of classic Disney animated films as we had the Jungle Book in 1994, 101 Dalmatians in 1996 and its sequel in 2000, Alice in Wonderland in 2010, and Maleficent the previous year. Following the major success of Alice and Maleficent, it seemed like Disney saw their new cash cow with live-action remakes and started tackling bigger films starting here with Cinderella, and having it come out this year made sense as it would be part of celebrating the 65th anniversary of the animated film. While it wasn’t a straight up remake and did make some alterations to the story, there was still plenty of buzz with the star power of the film and the Disney branding behind it. Ultimately, the film was a success making over $201 million and even though it was below Alice and Maleficent, it was still enough of a win to show Disney that there was enough to keep going as now they look towards their biggest films to remake. As for Cinderella itself, it earns the title of the overachiever of the month thanks to its strong performance though an honorable mention does go to Home for its strong performance as well.
Underachiever of March 2015: Chappie
One of the more interesting films coming out this month that had a lot of intrigue behind it was the sci-fi action film Chappie, a film about a police robot who is programmed to think like a human and is captured by a gang in crime-ridden Johannesburg. Seemingly drawing a lot of comparisons to District 9 which was a surprise hit of 2009, it looked like this film had the potential to be the breakout hit of 2015 though coming out in March was a risk given some of the bigger films released this month. Sadly, the film did receive negative reviews from critics who felt it was more style than substance and despite coming out at the beginning of the month, it only ended up making over $31 million which couldn’t even get it into the top 5 for the month and caused the cancellation of a potential sequel. As a result, there is no question that this film deserves to be the underachiever of the month though it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the other underachievers from the year.
March 2015 Awards Watch: Cinderella
As I have mentioned plenty of times previously, March is an interesting year when it comes to awards in that it is the end of one year as well as the beginning of the next, so because of that the month can have numerous films make it into this category or none at all. This year, we only have one film make it into this category and that is Cinderella which was nominated for one Academy Award (Best Costume Design) though it didn’t win. There’s not really much else to say for this month and we will see how future Marchs fare in terms of this category.
Overall Thoughts of March 2015:
Overall, the month of March 2015 ended up being a pretty solid month and was the best of the year to this point, but it does feel like a disappointment when compared to previous Marchs. We have seen over the years that March can be either a great month of a weak month, but it’s not often we have a March that is in between and that is really where this March ends up landing. We did have 3 films from this month that made over $100 million with one film getting over $200 million, and the rest of the films were fairly decent with nothing completely bombing to drag the month down. 2015 has been an interesting year to this point in that we had strong momentum coming out of 2014 and the last two months have been better than average, and we will see if the spring continues this momentum going into the summer. As for the month of March 2015, it is a fine month to continue what has been a surprise year so far that is 2015.
Final Grade: B-
