It's heady company. Just don't look for this weekend's new releases to join those ranks. ‘Keanu,’ an action-comedy sendup from Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, nabbed third place with $9.3 million across 2,658 screens. The weak result is alleviated somewhat by the fact that the Warner Bros./ New Line release cost a meagre $15 million to produce.
Open Road's ‘Mother's Day,’ an ensemble romantic comedy with Julia Roberts, Jennifer Anniston, and Jason Sudekis, collapsed at the multiplexes, eking out $8.3 million across 3,035 locations to finish in fourth. That could spell the end for director Gary Marshall's lucrative ‘throw a bunch of stars at a holiday’ franchise that also encompassed ‘Valentine's Day’ and ‘New Year's Eve.’ ‘Arbor Day’ is unlikely to score a greenlight now.
And Focus Features' ‘Ratchet and Clank’ struggled to leave an impression. The adaptation of the video game series about a fugitive robot and a cat-like alien, only managed to pull in $4.8 million from 2,891 locations, marking it as D.O.A.
Analysts and box office watchers weren't expecting a lot from this crop, but the results were even worse than expected. Going into the weekend, tracking services had both ‘Mother's Day’ and ‘Keanu’ debuting to north of $10 million.
In its second weekend, Universal's ‘The Huntsman: Winter's War’ dropped 52% to $9.4 million for a second place finish. With $33.9 million in the bank, this $115 million production is headed to write-down territory. ‘Barbarshop: The Next Cut’ rounded out the top five, earning $6.1 million and bringing the Warner Bros. and MGM comedy sequel's domestic total to $44.7 million.
Of course, the whole weekend is really just a throat clearing for ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ which barrels into theaters on May 6. The superhero sequel could pull in as much as $200 million to score one of the biggest openings in history.
