With the warm weather and Spring just around the corner, the spring forward weekend brought out thoughts of gardening, and audiences to the eco-fable The Lorax. The Dr. Seuss book turned Universal movie won over the Once-ler and the weekend box office again for a second straight week to #1 with $38.846 million, fighting off John Carter. The sci-fi/fantasy adventure knocked Project X ($11.142 million) and Act of Valor ($6.991 million) down one spot each to #3 and #4, respectively. Joining John Carter in the disappointing new movie weekend was Silent House and Eddie Murphy’s #6 A Thousand Words ($6.176 million), a screaming and silent duo.
John Carter, the second of three book-to-film movies at the box office (The Vow is the third), is an adaptation of Edward Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, the first novel in the Barsoom series. 
Written by the sci-fi, fantasy, adventure and Western author in 1912 and then published in 1917, the book, and the series, influenced people in fiction and non-fiction worlds including scientists, novelists, filmmakers and comic book writers. Unfortunately, John Carter was unable to live up to its name. The Disney film, starring Taylor Kitsch of 2012’s Battleship and Savages, debuted at #2 with $30.18 million domestically and $70.6 million internationally, which for the $250 million production budgeted movie is like Mars, uninhabitable for humans and studio executives. As the film is from a book series, a sequel is in the works but the potential for one seems less likely with John Carter‘s opening numbers.
The audience for the real time remake Silent House is near silent. From The Silent House, the Elizabeth Olsen-starring horror movie is repeating the original Uruguayan film’s reviews and therefore, the 88 minutes of real time turned in at #6. The co-directed film from Chris Kentis and Laura Lau grossed $6.661 million domestically (note the 666) at 2,124 theaters.
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