Film News: ‘21 Jump Street’ Dominates Weekend Box Office

CHICAGO – Not too many surprises in the box office this weekend, as pretty much every film placed where it was predicted to finish. Lead by “21 Jump Street,” which came in at number one, the top five was rounded out by “The Lorax,” “John Carter,” “Project X,” and “A Thousand Words.”

The new comedy starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, “21 Jump Street” reeled in $35 million at the weekend box office. For a comedy based on a television drama that is rated R, this total was pretty impressive. The win comes a week before “The Hunger Games” is released, making it one of the easiest predictions to not repeat as the top earner two weekends in a row. But the makers of “21 Jump Street” can’t complain: they made $5 million more in their opening weekend than “John Carter” did in its first three days.

Speaking of “John Carter,” the $250 million budgeted film came in third place this weekend with a lowly $13.5 million. This brings its total gross to $179.3 million internationally and $53.2 million domestically, a major disappointment for Walt Disney Pictures. The company will be extremely lucky to break even on the film.

The week’s other new comedy release, “Casa de mi Padre,” finished at number nine at the box office with $2.2 million. While this may seem like a low total, the film was only released in 382 theaters. Compared to the 3,000 plus theaters each of the top three films were in, “Casa” did pretty good for itself.

So, will any film be able to compete next weekend with “The Hunger Games”? Well…no. But we can still wait and see how each film does with a major release competing against it in the same weekend. While “21 Jump Street” and “The Lorax” have done well at the box office, “John Carter” may have run out of all chances to make its big budget back.

1. 21 Jump Street [14]– $35 million – new
2. The Lorax [15]– $22.8 million – down 41% — $158.4 million total
3. John Carter [16]– $13.5 million – down 55% — $53.2 million total
4. Project X [17]– $4 million – down 64% — $48.1 million total
5. A Thousand Words [18]– $3.8 million – down 39% — $12.1 million total
6. Act of Valor [19]– $3.7 million – down 47% — $62.4 million total
7. Safe House [20]– $2.8 million – down 42% — $120.2 million total
8. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island [21]– $2.5 million – down 32% — $95.1 million total
9. Casa de mi Padre [22]– $2.2 million – new
10. This Means War [23]– $2.1 million – down 43% — $50.5 million total

[24]	By TIM MARTENS [25] Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com tim@hollywoodchicago.com [24]