The Butler Still First At The Box Office
Either the film is really appealing, or Oprah has been buying out a lot of empty theaters. The Butler has been in theaters since August 16th and, coming out of its second weekend, has remained number 1 at the box office. The film made $25 million its first week, dropped to $17 million its second week, and has grossed $52.2 million in total so far. With a production budget of only $30 million (Box Office Mojo), the film is already profitable.
This year many of the films studios have been banking on have been unsuccessful at making back their budgets in theaters. Big budget productions like Pacific Rim, Elysium, and Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters, have been out for weeks and are tens of millions of dollars away from meeting their production budgets, let alone reaching profitability.
The Butler is not the type of film a summer that would be expected to beat out a summer Blockbuster in terms of profit. Yet in addition to achieving profitability before the previously mentioned movies, it still beat out opening weekend debuts for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, The World’s End, and You’re Next in its second weekend.
What do you think the reason is for The Butler’s instant success? Is the film really appealing, or has Oprah been buying out a lot of empty theaters? Comment below.
