James Franco’s "Oz: The Great and Powerful" grabs 1st spot at box-office

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Oz: The Great and Powerful" follows up its strong debut last week with approximately $42.2 million in North American theaters. Though down 47%, the Disney fantasy adventure movie still firmly grabs the first spot, blocking new releases "The Call" and "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," AceShowbiz said.

The Sam Raimi prequel to the L. Frank Baum classic "The Wizard of Oz" earns a total of $145 million, surpassing "Identity Thief" to become the top gross of 2013 so far. Overseas, the James Franco-starring film scores another $46.6 million, bringing in a global haul of $281.8 million.

Halle Berry's thriller "The Call" settles at the second spot with an estimated $17.1 million, exceeding the expectations of Sony/TriStar which acquired the $15 million R-rated film from Troika Pictures. Receiving a "B+" CinemaScore grade, it lures 61 percent female audience and 47 percent below the age of 30.

Jim Carrey's "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone", earning a "C+" CinemaScore grad, bows at the third place with approximately $10.3 million. It becomes the latest Warner Bros. flop in 2013 following "Gangster Squad" ($45.9 million gross vs. $60 million budget), "Bullet to the Head" ($9.5 million vs. reported $55 million budget), "Beautiful Creatures" ($19.1 million vs. $60 million budget), and "Jack the Giant Slayer" ($53.9 million vs. $195 million budget).

Spending $32 million to produce the film about two feuding Las Vegas magicians, WB says in a statement issued by president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman, "We've had had a rough start to the year, but we'll turn things around." He adds, "The budget for Burt Wonderstone was reasonable, but unfortunately the film didn't work. It wasn't for lack of trying."

The rest of the movies occupying the top 10 barely could earn double digit millions, seeing a repeat of last week's sluggish list. Rounding up the top 5 are another fantasy adventure flick "Jack the Giant Slayer" and Melissa McCarthy's comedy "Identity Thief" with approximately $6.2 million and about $4.8 million respectively.