The inspirational drama "Soul Surfer" exceeded expectations and debuted in fourth with an estimated $11.1M. Posting the best screen average among the new films, the PG-rated true story of a teen surfer who gets her life back on track after a shark bites off her arm averaged a good $5,014 from 2,214 screens. Overall, “Soul Surfer” came in fourth, but lost the #2 spot only by a nose to “Hanna,” which banked $12.3m on 300+ more screens, and the “Arthur” remake, which played on 1,000+ more screens but took in only $12.6m. Per screen, “Soul Surfer” beat “Arther” by $1,200. No small thing, especially since surfing movies tend to wipe out.
Nikki Finke reports that Sony was hoping for $10 million and is obviously very happy with the results: “If we do 10 million this weekend (or close to it), it would be a home run for Sony and Film District.”
The movie earned mixed reviews from critics, but "Soul Surfer" earned an A+ grade from CinemaScore which is rare these days so word-of-mouth should help the pic to play well for the rest of the spring season especially with the Easter holiday still to come. So the $15 million production should prove to be quite profitable.
Exit polls showed that a whopping 80% of the crowd was female and 56% was under 25. Moms and daughters made up a big portion of the audience.
“Soul Surfer,” which is based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton, a young surfer whose Christian faith and family help her to overcome a shark attack that cost her an arm, stars AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt. Thanks to some very good marketing to the teenage crowd in general and to the Christian market specifically, what Hollywood has here is one less excuse to keep ‘em coming.
