Box-office brawl: Weekend movie race too close to call
(CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - Even with three movies brawling at the box office this weekend, it still was slow week for Hollywood.
In what is one of the closest weekend finishes in memory, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena's police story "End of Watch" and Jennifer Lawrence's horror flick "House at the End of the Street" are tied for first place with $13 million each.
And right in the same ballpark was Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams' baseball tale "Trouble with the Curve," which opened with $12.7 million. Actual rankings will be determined Monday as studios release final numbers for the weekend.
In spite of the race, revenues were down for the fourth-straight weekend, with all three of the top new movies opening to modest crowds.
"This was a clash of the non-titans," said Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "When three films are duking it out for the top spot with only around $13 million, that doesn't represent a very strong period at the box office."
Overall, domestic revenues totaled $88 million, down 25 percent from the same weekend last year, when a 3-D re-release of "The Lion King" led with $21.9 million, according to Hollywood.com.
While audiences were not too excited about the new wide releases, Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment banner had big crowds in limited release for its teen drama "The Perks of Being a Wallflower."
The film took in $244,000 in four locations for a strong average of $61,000 a theater. That compares to meager averages ranging from $3,960 to $4,762 a theater for "Trouble with the Curve," "House at the End of the Street" and "End of Watch," which all played in about 3,000 cinemas.
Filling out the top five spots were "Finding Nemo," with $9.4 million ($1.3 million international) and "Resident Evil: Retribution," with $6.7 million ($30.5 million international).