An atypical Thursday

Unlike the majority of Thursday's, today is a holiday. It's rare when an opener gets a chance to maximize their profits on their very first day as everyone has to wait until the weekend to show it. For all holdovers from last week, that means it gets 2 weekends with holidays in them. That's a pretty good head start.

	Thursday adm.	(so far)		April 4
Rank	Title	LW	TW	% chg
1	The Croods	4,826	10,114	+109.6%
2	G.I. Joe: Retaliation	10,079	9,261	-8.1%
3	Saving General Yang	636	3,909	+514.6%
4	Jurassic Park 3D	--	3,047	--
5	Finding Mr. Right	2,486	3,010	+21.1%
6	Ip Man: The Final Fight	2,604	2,814	+8.1%
7	Touch of the Light	--	1,418	--
8	Lesson of the Evil	--	1,280	--
9	Olympus Has Fallen	1,368	1,106	-19.2%
10	Bullet to the Head	--	916	--

Pre-sales for the top 10 films

Who benefits most from holidays on a weekday? Kids films. No surprise that The Croods wound up doubling last Thursday's pre-sales and finishing on top. The Croods has been closing the gap on G.I. Joe 2 ever since last Friday and it has already opened up a 1,000 admissions lead. In gross, G.I. Joe 2 still leads, however, The Croods has had some remarkable word of mouth with over 88% of users liking it. That score doesn't match the 91-92% highs of Madagascar 3 or Wreck-It Ralph but it's still a great approval rating. It will pass 2m by this weekend.

G.I. Joe 2 might have been the runner-up in pre-sales but it will easily beat out The Croods unless if it has a weekend collapse. IMAX has been going strong and it has been given a 2nd weekend in the 3 IMAX theaters. Thursday is still doing quite well with about 50% filled and will likely end with 70-80% capacity at show time. 2m has already been accomplished. 2.5m will be achieved this weekend and it will still pass 3m.

Saving General Yang opens in 3rd after rolling out with previews last weekend. It placed in the top 10 for all 5 days (Thursday-Monday) last week and made more than $10,000 from Friday-Monday. Reviews sit at a very strong 81%. While showtimes remain sparse and unfavorable, the good word-of-mouth will carry this forward. This will be a very good weekend for Ekin Cheng and Ronny Yu.

Jurassic Park 3D gets resurrected before Jurassic Park 4 hits theaters next year. 3D re-releases are becoming more popular and they are getting more promotion unlike before. It'll be one of the biggest 3D re-releases ever since 2010.

The battle between Finding Mr. Right and Ip Man: The Final Fight continues. Last weekend Ip Man: The Final Fight delivered a knockout punch to Finding Mr. Right on the weekend by pulling away with the holidays. Though it handily defeated Mr. Right last weekend, Mr. Right has clawed its way back from defeat and has steadily narrowed the gap between itself and Ip Man. It also helps that Mr. Right is being distributed by EDKO which tilts it more toward Mr. Right. Another thing that is not working in Ip Man: TFF's favor is the lukewarm reviews. It sits at only 53% and audiences don't seem very enthusiastic about this. Mr. Right has a more respectable 76% working in its favor. Even with all that baggage, Ip Man should still claim a 2nd weekend victory or Mr. Right but the margin will be smaller than last weekend.