Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum jumped to the head of the class and the weekend box office with the TV show turned movie 21 Jump Street. The late ’80s to early ’90s Johnny Depp, Dustin Nguyen, Peter DeLuise and Holly Robinson Peete drama series was very loosely adapted into a comedy with the duo as underachieving park patrol partners sent undercover to their former high school. The bromance of Tatum and Hill, and the movie’s formula and marketing of the #1 21 Jump Street won over audiences, 53% male and 47% female, to gross $36.302 million domestically. With the addition of the $7 million from a limited international release, 21 Jump Street earned $43.302 million worldwide which puts the movie over its $42 millon production budget. Currently, Sony Pictures are in sequel talks with Jonah Hill and fellow writer Michael Bacall returning to write a treatment, and Hill and Tatum to star.
Former two-time #1, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, continued to plant Truffula trees and grew an additional 23 theaters to its 3,769 theater count even as the movie fell to #2. The yellow mustached creature and the $22.764 million from the weekend crushed John Carter again, continuing its 2012 #1 box office status. Project X and Act of Valor are sticking together for a third week; the #4 and #5 stayed strong in the competitive weekend box office with $4.044 million and $3.733 million, respectively. Will Ferrell’s #9 Casa De Mi Padre ($2.287 million) and Jason Segel’s #17 Jeff, Who Lives at Home ($855,709) premiered in very limited release.
John Carter dashed second week hopes when the Andrew Stanton-written (with Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon) and directed action-adventure sci-fi-fantasy failed to connect with audiences. The first movie in the projected Barsoom trilogy took in $13.569 millon over the weekend to its now $53.227 million domestic gross. The overseas market is helping the $250 million budget numbers out as international theatergoers have brought in $126.1 million since its debut last week.
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