‘The Butler’ Cleans Up At The Box Office While ‘Kick-Ass 2’ And ‘Jobs’ Falter

“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” mopped up the competition at the box office this weekend, with the Forest Whitaker drama grossing $25.0 million. Filmed on a relatively small $30 million budget, “The Butler” is on track to make a healthy profit. While critics and fans were impressed with Whitaker’s performance, it may have been the movie’s timing that really propelled it to the top of the box-office standings.

“One of ‘The Butler’s’ biggest advantages is its very strong release date,” Box Office Mojo’s Ray Subers explained. “After a few months of big-budget, male-skewing blockbuster fare, female-skewing adult dramas have consistently done good business.” Subers went on to note that similar films such as “Julie & Julia” and “The Help” also performed very well after being released in August.

“The Butler” aside, most of the weekend’s new releases fared poorly. “Kick-Ass 2” made its debut in fourth place with just $13.6 million, well behind the original movie’s $19 million. Given that the film only cost $26 million to produce, however, it may wind up making a small profit. The original “Kick-Ass” performed decently at the box office, but did much better on DVD and via digital streaming among male audiences.

However, the sequel to the “real world” superhero movie may be suffering somewhat because star Jim Carrey declined to do any promotion for it. Carrey found the violence in “Kick-Ass 2” objectionable after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last year and refused to promote the film.

Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs biopic “Jobs” also performed poorly this weekend, making its debut in seventh place with a modest take of $6.7 million. Meanwhile, “Paranoia” opened in 13th place with $3.5 million, well below previously released films such as “2 Guns” and “The Wolverine.”

Check out the top 10 movies of the week, according to Box Office Mojo:

1) “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” -- $25.0 million
2) “We’re the Millers” -- $17.8 million
3) “Elysium” -- $13.6 million
4) “Kick-Ass 2” -- $13.6 million
5) “Planes” -- $13.1 million
6) “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” -- $8.4 million
7) “Jobs” -- $6.7 million
8) “2 Guns” -- $5.6 million
9) “The Smurfs 2” -- $4.6 million
10) “The Wolverine” -- $4.4 million