I was going to say “42 hits a home run” but that would
have been TOO obvious.

42,
which everyone seems to feel is a good film but falls short of the mark (one
wonders what Spike Lee could have
done with it), over-performed wildly, compared to earlier box office predictions.

Most analysts were expecting the film to be No. 1 against weak competition, but grossing something in the high teens – around $18-19 million. 

But the film opened big on Friday, and did even better on Saturday, grossing over $27 million. 

The film is also the biggest opening ever for any baseball
movie, and relatively modestly budgeted at $40 million, it needs to make most of its money domestically and in Latin
America since there’s almost no market for it in Europe and Asia (except for Japan).

As expected, Evil
Dead dropped by some 64%, while The Croods just keeps going. 

However at
almost $82 million to date, Olympus Has Fallen
has become the biggest domestic box office take for any film directed by Antoine Fuqua.

But judging from the cheap sets and the Bulgarian-made
cut rate CGI effects in the film, the $70
million production budget that’s always quoted smells like a suspiciously jacked
up number.

1) 42 Warner Bros $27.2
million

2) Scary Movie 5 (Dimension Films) –
$15.1 million

3) The Croods (DreamWorks Animation) –
$13.2 million  Total: $142.5 million

4) G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Paramount
Pictures) – $10.5 million   Total: $102 million

5) Evil Dead (TriStar Pictures) –
$9.5 million  Total: $41.5 million

6) Jurassic Park (Universal Pictures) – $8.8
million  Total; $31.9 million

7) Olympus Has Fallen (FilmDistrict) –
$7.2 million  Total: $81.8 million

8) Oz the Great and Powerful (Walt Disney
Pictures) – $4.9 million 
Total: $219.4 million

9) Tyler Perry’s Temptation (Lionsgate) –
$4.4 million  Total: $45.3 million

10) The Place Beyond the Pines (Focus
Features) – $4 million Total: 
$5.4 million