How bad has Hollywood’s Cavs-without-Lebron slump gotten? So bad that Gnomeo And Juliet, the none-too-clever animated reworking/trashing of Shakespeare, was #1 at box office this weekend. In its third week. On Friday, it looked like the Farrelly Brothers’ high-concept marital comedy Hall Pass would cruise to a half-decent first place finish, but it faded quickly enough to allow Gnomeo to get the silver-screen-babysitter dollars (14.2 million of them) needed for the victory. That left Hall Pass to debut a weak second with $13.4 million. Still, the news was significantly worse for the week’s other opening, Drive Angry, which didn’t screen for critics until 9 p.m. the evening before it opened and scraped together a pitiful $5.1 million, despite giving the audience everything it wants every damned second it’s on the screen. (Co-writer Todd Farmer, tweeting from vacation: “Disneyland is pricey. We’ve already spent more than Drive Angry made.”)
In limited release, the topical Cannes favorite Of Gods And Men opened very strong on mostly good reviews with $22,300 on three screens while the A.V. Club-endorsed Heartbeats performed a bit more modestly, with just $7,300 on one screen. (We assume everyone is watching that one OnDemand, right? Because it’s lovely.)
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.