Looking at the box office top ten this weekend, you might get the sense Hollywood doesn’t hate Christians. Well, we all know they do. Still, though, there are two openly Christian films marketed as such commanding top spots at this weekend’s box office.
In its 4th weekend, director Randall Wallace’s “Heaven Is For Real” expanded to another 118 screens for a total of 3048 and held on to 4th place. Thus far, the true story of a young boy who convinces skeptics he visited Heaven has earned $74 million. This includes its estimated take of $6 million this weekend.
At number 7 or 8 is “Mom’s Night Out.” The $5 million faith-based comedy starring Patricia Heaton should close its opening weekend with something close to $4 million. A B+ from CinemaScore and Mother’s Day might boost that number. The early estimates expected “Mom’s Night Out” to do something closer to $7 million. But as Deadline points out, the faith-based audience is still going to see “Heaven Is for Real” — which is holding in ways no one really expected.
Coming in at number one, as expected, is the Seth Rogen’s R-rated comedy “Neighbors,” which stormed the box office with a huge $48 million take.
Troubling news for Sony arrive this weekend with the news that “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” fell 59% in its second weekend. The franchise will accumulate a total of $148 million by Monday, but is showing signs of under-performing. With a production and promotion budget that nudges close to $400 million, Spidey will need to gross at least $750 million worldwide just to break even.
Compared to its predecessor, ASM2, is almost $35 million behind where ASM was after 7 days, $110 million compared to $145 million. After 7 days Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy sat at $151 million, $192 million, and $182 million, respectively. And that was without the added windfall of 3D and Imax ticketing.
Sony has bet big on a franchise that is running out of gas. ASM3 is already greenlit and a side-franchise based on a number of Spider-Man villains has already been announced.
Unfortunately, audiences seem to be getting tired of something they feel they have seen too many times before.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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