On a day when Major League Baseball is celebrating the life of civil rights pioneer and Hall-of-Famer Jackie Robinson, critics are raving about the success of the movie commemorating Robinson’s life, “42”.
Studio estimates say the movie earned $27.3 million over the weekend, according to FOX News.
The movie easily beat out the fifth installment in the “Scary Movie” series (simply titled “Scary Movie 5), which took second place, opening at $15.2 million. This is one of the worst openings for one of the horror-film parodies as three out of the previous four movies posted debuts of at least $40 million.
“42” also proved doubters wrong as many baseball movies make mediocre debuts. Experts projected “42” to put up numbers under $20 million.
Compared to previous baseball movies like “Moneyball” and “A League of Their Own”, “42” did exceptionally well. With this weekend’s opening it holds the record for earnings by a baseball movie in terms of the cash it has made. “Moneyball” which opened in 2011 debuted at $19.5 million. “A League of Their Own” which opened in 1992 debuted at $13.7 million.
Head of Distribution for Warner Bros. Dan Fellman, praised the movie and the MLB’s efforts to honor number 42.
"It's a story that has so much emotion to it. Jackie Robinson's life had such an influence on our country," Fellman said. "Think of what a tribute that is for what he accomplished. Every player wearing 42 on his back."
According to Fellman, the movie did well with the older Americans since 83 percent of its audience was over the age of 25. Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com, saud the fifth “Scary Movie” may not have done well because its distance from the fourth movie which debuted in 2011.
"Sometimes, when there's too big of a lag, people lose interest. If it's a `Star Wars' movie, nostalgia works in your favor. The long lag works in your favor. People are loaded with anticipation," Dergarabedian said. “Other franchises, if you go too long, they lose that pop and excitement, and it's hard to get that back.”
Taking arguably the biggest prize over the weekend was Tom Cruises new movie "Oblivion", which opened internationally at $61.1 million.
