MAR 14-16 BOX OFFICE REPORT: NEED FOR SPEED NOT SO SPEEDY

There was a switcheroo atop the U.S. box office over the last weekend. A smart hold, enabling it to save some face after a low opening last week, saw Mr. Peabody & Sherman overtake 300: Rise of an Empire to sell the most tickets with audiences - $21.8 million ought to be enough to see it well on the way to $100 million, though that will remain a disappointment for DreamWorks Animation's comedy. Highest opener Need for Speed needed rather more speed to impress than it received: $17.8 million was sufficient only for third place - yet another flop for a video game adaptation, despite Disney's marketing's reticence to make the connection between the film and its source. But even Need for Speed performed better than The Single Moms Club. As confirmation of just how low Tyler Perry's star has sunk of late, his latest became his first film ever as director to open below $10 million. If that sounds like pretty good news to you, then this likely will too: Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel followed up its record-breaking limited opening with a record-breaking moderate opening: a per-theatre average of $55,122 is the highest ever for a film in over 60 theatres (in 66 theatres, that makes $3.6 million - enough for eighth place, finally knocking Frozen down to ninth). The film continuation of the TV series Veronica Mars was also released on VOD on Friday, and so an 11th place start wasn't perhaps as bad as it looks; the fact that over half of that came from Friday screenings does look bad, however, though not bad enough to dissuade creator Rob Thomas from discussing a potential sequel. Further down the charts, limited releases such as Bad Words, Le Week-End, Enemy, Teenage and The Retrieval all began their runs with little fanfare.

Top 10

1. Mr. Peabody & Sherman ($21,809,249)
2. 300: Rise of an Empire ($19,201,345)
3. Need for Speed ($17,844,939)
4. Non-Stop ($10,615,305)
5. The Single Moms Club ($8,075,111)
6. The LEGO Movie ($7,701,309)
7. Son of God ($5,528,497)
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel ($3,638,041)
9. Frozen ($2,147,743)
10. The Monuments Men ($2,062,783)