Lee Daniels’ The Butler was expected to have a strong chance at winning the box office this weekend, but it wasn’t expected to do this well. While $25 million might not sound like a big opening after this summer’s huge blockbusters, it is impressive for an inexpensive drama. Kick-Ass 2 was the big disappointment, coming in behind holdovers from last weekend.
The Butler, produced by The Weinstein Company, has a lot going for it, from Oprah Winfrey’s return to the screen to a parade of A-listers in supporting roles. In it, Forrest Whitaker plays a butler who serves in the White House for over half-a-century, and he sees everything from the Civil Rights movement to Barack Obama’s election. It cost just $30 million to make and is drawing up comparisons to The Help, the 2011 historical drama that became a huge hit at the tail end of summer 2011.
According to Entertainment Weekly, audiences loved it, giving it an A CinemaScore grade. The $25 million opening could just be the start of its Oscar run. The Help scored $169.7 million during its run and it will be interesting to see if The Butler can reach that.
The Hollywood Reporter notes how TWC targeted the film to African-Americans, who made up 39 percent of this weekend’s audience. “While the biggest numbers came from the larger markets, proportionately the mid- and smaller-sized towns over-indexed, which can be attributable to some extent to the outreach that we did to the faith-based groups,” Erik Lomis, president of distribution for TWC, told THR.
Meanwhile, the Jennifer Aniston comedy We’re The Millers impressed again, grossing $17.8 million in its second weekend. It’s up to $69.5 million, which is amazing considering the $37 million budget.
Sony’s Elysium slipped to No. 3, but grossed just $13.6 million, proving that all the sci-fi fans who wanted to see it already saw it on opening weekend. It’ll be a struggle to reach $90 million by the end of its run.
Universal’s Kick-Ass 2, which received poor reviews compared to the 2010 original, debuted to $13.5 million. It only cost $28 million to make, though, so it won’t join the list of box office bombs with huge budgets this summer. Planes from Disney added $13.1 million.
Worth noting, Ashton Kutcher’s Jobs debuted to only $6.7 million, but it cost $12 million to make. Paranoia with Liam Hemsworth cost Relativity $40 million to make, but only made $3.5 million.
image: TWC