Seth Rogen and Zac Efron's new comedy Neighbors is off to a strong start as it looks to dethrone The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on Friday night, with nearly double the earnings.
The Universal comedy earned $19.6 million on Friday, The Nick Stoller-directed Neighbors is projected to earn about $48 million for its opening weekend, which should easily be good enough for the No. 1 box office spot, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Last weekend's No. 1, The Amazing Spider-Man, grossed $10. 1 million on Friday and is projected to earn about $37 million for the weekend. The disappointing news for Sony is the likely steep 60 percent drop from opening weekend, but the film would be at about $147 million domestically. The good news is that the web-slinging film has already earned over $450 million worldwide.
The other two new weekend releases were nonstarters, reports Forbes. Mom's Night Out is another faith-based film, but unlike recent religious films, no one seems interested in this one. It opened to $1.25 million, which wasn't even good enough to top the other faith-based film, holdover Heaven Is For Real, which grossed $1.65 million.
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return also opened, but next to no one went out to see it, despite its wide release in 2,500 theaters. The film earned $980,000 and will be lucky if it comes anywhere near $4 million for the weekend. The film comes from new distributor Clarious Entertainment and was savaged by critics.