Weekend Box Office Report: April 5-7, 2013

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Evil Dead possesses the box office!

More than three decades after they first terrorized cabin inhabitants in Sam Raimi’s low-budget horror classic, the Kandarian demons returned to inhabit a new generation of flesh, violently thrusting the remake of EVIL DEAD to the top of the chart with $26 million.

Whether the brutal splatterburst of Necronomicon-spawn met the poster’s promise of “The Most Terrifying Film You Will Ever Experience” is another matter — paying crowds fled the grisly scene and left only a ‘C+’ CinemaScore behind, which means that (like many horror movies) the new EVIL DEAD could face a tough second weekend. (You can tell us how you felt about the remake HERE).

Fortunately for the movie’s makers (and as with previous offerings from Raimi’s Ghost House production company), the update came with a relatively small budget of $17 million. Compared to the openings of other 2013 horror releases, EVIL DEAD landed between TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D ($21.7M) and MAMA ($28.4M), which went on to a $71.6M domestic total.

It was a tight fight for second place, with last week’s winner G.I. JOE: RETALIATION and THE CROODS tied with an estimated $21.1 million (tomorrow’s actual calculations will determine the real runner-up). The Joes held on fairly strong, losing less than half of their opening weekend business (it’s now at $231M globally), while the computer-animated cave-clan crossed the $100 million mark earlier in the week (it has reached $330M worldwide).

Steven Spielberg’s extinct reptiles were resurrected again for audiences but with an additional dimension, and JURASSIC PARK 3D stomped into fourth place with $18.2 million. And despite being on 1000 fewer screens, the 20-year-old (!!) dinosaur adventure also had a higher per-screen average than the two movies above it.

With just over $10 million, the Capitol actioner OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN stayed just ahead of Tyler Perry’s latest effort TYLER PERRY’S TEMPTATION: CONFESSIONS OF A MARRIAGE COUNSELOR. Filmmaker Sam Raimi currently has both a sequel and a remake in the Top 10, as OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL is still gathering gold from over the rainbow.

Any studio hopes that author Stephenie Meyer’s THE HOST would generate another TWILIGHT-sized movie franchise would appear to be dashed — the movie dropped more than half of its already-modest opening weekend (it’s also found little international interest, making only an additional $10.7M overseas). THE CALL and ADMISSION bring up the rear as SPRING BREAKERS and THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE get nudged from the list.

Outside the chart, limited releases of Robert Redford’s THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, Danny Boyle’s TRANCE and PRIMER filmmaker Shane Carruth’s latest UPSTREAM COLOR each had decent but not extraordinary debuts (all around $30k per-screen averages), while the Bradley Cooper/Ryan Gosling crime-drama THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES expaned slightly to 30 screens as it strains toward $1 million.

Next week gives you some baseball history with 42, yet more horror parody with SCARY MOVIE 5, and familiar faces like Jason Bateman, Paula Patton and Alexander Skarsgård in the drama DISCONNECT.

What did you think of the remake of EVIL DEAD? VOTE HERE!