Image Credit: Daniel McFadden

Many assumed that the weekend before the debut of Man of Steel would be a calm one at the box office, but that was not the case. Universal’s thriller The Purge surged into the top spot this weekend and shattered all expectations with a massive $36.4 million debut.

The film, produced by Paranormal Activity mastermind Jason Blum, cost only $3 million to make, and because its marketing campaign was predominantly digital (read: inexpensive), the micro-budgeted film will become a hugely profitable release for the currently on-fire Universal.

The Purge had an intriguing premise: for one night every year, all crime (including murder) is legal. Universal’s marketing team effectively communicated that twisted plot in trailers and ads, and the premise helped pack theaters, though it didn’t deliver on audiences’ high expectations. Crowds issued the film a discouraging “C” CinemaScore grade, and the film sank 38 percent from Friday to Saturday — a sign of poor word-of-mouth.

The Purge gave star Ethan Hawke his best opening weekend ever — trouncing Training Day‘s $22.6 million debut in 2001. Hawke also thrived on the indie circuit this weekend, as his film Before Midnight scored $585,000 from just 52 locations for an early $1.5 million total. Before Midnight‘s robust $11,243 per theater average trailed only one other film in the Top 20: The Purge, which had a sizzling $14,353 average at its 2,536 locations.

Universal reports that audiences for The Purge were quite diverse, with Hispanic moviegoers making up 33 percent of ticket buyers. Interestingly, the film also played predominantly to women, who accounted for 56 percent of the audience. READ FULL STORY »

Image Credit: Daniel McFadden

The buzz around Universal’s Ethan Hawke thriller The Purge seemed like it was swelling heading into the weekend, but no one could have guessed that the film would over-perform the way it did yesterday.

The Purge earned an incredible $16.7 million on its first Friday (technically, that number includes Thursday night), and it’s headed to an opening-weekend gross of about $37 million, giving producer Jason Blum, the man behind the Paranormal Activity series, another runaway hit. The best part about all this for Universal? The Purge‘s budget was only $3 million.

It was a mixed bag of news for Fox’s Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy The Internship, which came in second. On the one hand, the film exceeded lowered expectations with $6.6 million on Friday, putting the $58 million movie on pace for an $18-19 million opening weekend. On the other hand, that’s a rather tepid result for the duo that helped Wedding Crashers climb to $209 million total back in 2005. Certainly not a disaster, though! READ FULL STORY »