It has taken three weeks, but finally, a film has dethroned Disney’s “Oz The Great and Powerful” and claimed the top spot at the box office.

This film was DreamWorks Animation’s “The Croods,” which grossed $43.6 million domestically in its opening weekend after showing at 4,046 locations. This is great news for DreamWorks, which has been under tremendous pressure after its November release, “Rise of the Guardians,” failed to resonate with audiences and resulted in the studio’s $87 million write-off.

The No. 1 factor that led to the successful opening of “The Croods” was its strategic release date. Students are on school break, and with Passover and Easter happening, more families will opt to go see the film.

Additionally, the film will maintain profitability because there is little competition until May. The animated film’s voice cast includes Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds, and while not all of these actors are household names, DreamWorks implemented a marketing campaign that focused on the comedic, familial nature of the film, rather than its main stars.

20th Century Fox executives must also be satisfied with the opening gross, as the film is the first release between the two studios since DreamWorks ended its distribution deal with Paramount Pictures.

Coming in second place was FilmDistrict’s “Olympus Has Fallen,” which opened with $30.4 million. The impressive opening figure exceeded expectations, and is good news for indie film company FilmDistrict, which produced it for $70 million — one of the biggest budgets the company has ever had. Audiences gave the film an A- rating on CinemaScore, which helped word-of-mouth and played a contributing factor in making the film the top action movie opening so far in 2013.

Additionally, the film benefited from star power in Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman. However, despite the surprisingly good opening, it will be interesting to see how the film will do this weekend, when “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” is released.

The final new release in the top 10 was Focus Features’ “Admission,” which opened in fourth place with $6.2 million. There’s really not much to say about the film other than that it is mediocre, at best. The low-budget comedy stars Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, and despite their likability, audiences simply did not enjoy the film’s story.

Instead of focusing on the story in its marketing campaign, Focus Features relied on the star power of Fey and Rudd. It appears the film will not last very long in theaters. Perhaps Fey should stick to the small screen.

—Written by Ian Tecklin, staff writer, ijteckli@syr.edu

Published on March 27, 2013 at 9:14 pm