Got to give credit where credit is due, and though several
other box analysts last week were predicting a Neighbors upset over The Amazing
Spider Man 2 this weekend, Eric Childress of EFilmcritic.com and the weekly box
office analyst for the Movies and Money reports on WCIU-TV in Chicago, predicted that Neighbors would handily beat Spider Man 2
his weekend, long before anyone else did. And he was right.

The modestly budgeted, raunchy $18 million Seth Rogen/Zac Efron comedy beat ASM
2 into submission this weekend, with a whopping $51 million, which is far more
than the consensus of around $35 million prediction by the experts. Great reviews, a great marketing campaign, fantastic word of mouth from advance
screenings, and a genuine ”gotta see it” feeling among filmgoers all helped
to give Neighbors a huge boost over Spider Man.

On the other hand, Sony execs must be wondering what went wrong, considering their $250 million budgeted film dropped almost 60% (though a second week drop like that is not at all unusual for comic book movies). Certainly the lackluster reviews and tepid word of mouth for ASM 2 did not help. And things are not going to get better for them with Godzilla and the
new X Men movie opening in the next two weeks, while Neighbors should be able to
hold its own very well over the same time period.

On the other side of the spectrum, Belle opened on 41 more screens for a 343% increase, with $473,000 at the box office this weekend, and has now grossed $620,000 to date.

And despite the competition, The Other Woman, Heaven is for Real and Captain America are still holding on very well: