Weekend Box Office: April 5-7

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Evil Dead - $26 million

2.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation - $21.1 million

3.  The Croods - $21.1 million

4.  Jurassic Park 3D - $18.2 million

5.  Olympus Has Fallen - $10 million

6.  Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor - $10 million

7.  Oz The Great and Powerful - $8.1 million

8.  The Host - $5.2 million

9.  The Call - $3.5 million

10.  Admission - $2 million

A combination of demons, dinosaurs, action figures, prehistoric families, terrorist invasions and Tyler Perry managed to give the box office somewhat of a pulse, as more than half of this weekend's box office haul each managed to cross the $10 million mark - a rare feat in a year that's seen more duds than hits.  Leading the pack is the remake of Evil Dead, which grossed out audiences to the tune of $26 million.  That puts it in between the openings of Mama ($28.4 million) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D ($21.7 million).  Grosses dropped steadily over the weekend after a strong start on Friday, which is typical for a horror film, but with a reported budget of $17 million, the remake is already a hit.

Duking it out for second place are holdovers G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and The Croods, which are in a dead heat with an estimated $21.1 mllion apiece (final totals will be released tomorrow).  G.I. Joe falls 48% from its first-place start last weekend and is lagging a bit behind the first film, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, which had already crossed $100 million at the same point in its release.  Overseas, the film is doing gangbusters, having already earned an additional $145 million.  The animated The Croods continues to be a big hit, having earned $125 million domestically and $204 million overseas. 

Back in theaters, and celebrating its 20th anniversary in glorious 3D, is Jurassic Park.  While some of the recent Disney 3D re-releases have fizzled in recent months, audiences seemed more than happy to shell out the cash to be ducking from 3D dinosaurs, as the film earned a solid $18.2 million.  Universal is probably considering that a good omen for the upcoming Jurassic Park IV. 

Olympus Has Fallen continues to beat the trend of flop action movies that mired the first few months of 2013, earning another $10 million to bring its domestic total to $71 million.  It also brings us to another tie for the weekend's box office numbers, as Tyler Perry's latest, Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor also earned an estimated $10 million. 

Next week, Hollywood saw fit to inflict us with another chapter in the Scary Movie franchise for some reason.  I'll be ignoring it, and so should you.  In the meantime, you can catch up on new releases like 42, which is the story of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, or you can find a theater playing Trance, which just opened with an impressive $136,000 in just four theaters and will be expanding locations next weekend.