Movies With Butter

This weekend, the charts worked out about as predictably as they possibly could: one new release had just new film-appeal to propel it to the top, while the other—an ill-received sequel to a quasi-animated film that arguably did not justify a sequel—fell behind holdouts.

2 Guns was the fortunate release to pull in the top earnings over the weekend—more specifically, $27.3 million. While not as high as its projected gross, the film was at least more fortunate than the other new release for this weekend.

2 Guns was chased by last week’s release, The Wolverine, which earned another $21.7 million, for a total of a little over $95 million. After that came last week’s other new release, The Smurfs 2, which pulled in only $18.2 million over the weekend (also falling short of its predicted earnings), for a total of $27.7 million (since it opened Wednesday).

This week’s honorable mentions include The Conjuring, which managed to cling to the upper levels of the charts with earnings of $13.6 million, and a total of $108.5 million, and the persistent Despicable Me 2, which earned another $10.3 million for a titanic sum of $326.6 million.

• Prev:  What's Popping: 'Avatar', 'Akira', 'Artemis Fowl', 'Mummy', 'Pacific Rim 2'
• Next:  Review: Lovelace ("Angel" in a Centerfold)