‘Burt Wonderstone’ Bombs As ‘Oz’ Tops Weekend Box Office

Oz The Great And Powerful maintained its spot at the top of the box office this weekend despite the release of new movies The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and The Call.

The new Steve Carell movie, which also starred Steve Buscemi and Jim Carey, didn’t make much of a dent in the box office this weekend. The comedy took in just over $10 million to finish third for the weekend. It is one of the poorest openings for both Carell and Carey.

Burt Wonderstone is the second disappointment for Warner Bros this year. The company was also behind Jack The Giant Slayer which failed to live up to its big budget expectations.

Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman, told the Hollywood Reporter: “We’ve had had a rough start to the year, but we’ll turn things around … The budget for BurtWonderstone was reasonable, but unfortunately the film didn’t work. It wasn’t for lack of trying.”

The Call was also made on a modest budget, (about $13 million) so even though it didn’t strike it big at the box office this weekend it still exceeded expectations. The Call took in $17.1 million and finished second for the weekend.

Sony president of distribution Rory Bruer, said: “Certainly, you have to give big kudos to all who were involved in promoting the film, including Berry, who did an incredible job.”

Neither film could come close to Oz, however, which took in another $42 million this weekend. According to Box Office Mojo, the film now has a domestic total of $145 million.

Here’s the Box Office top 10 for the week of March 17, 2013.

Oz the Great and Powerful – $42.2 million
The Call -$17.1 million
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone – $10.3 million
Jack the Giant Slayer– $6.2 million
Identity Thief – $4.5 million
Snitch – $3.5 million
21 and Over– $2.6 million
Silver Linings Playbook – $2.6 million
Safe Haven-$2.5 million
Escape From Planet Earth – $2.3 million