'The Other Woman' Capitalized On Weak Competition, Strung Out 'Captain America' For The Weekend Box Office Win
ByThe state of movies has gotten so bad recently that "The Other Woman" managed to top this past weekend's box office numbers, the Hollywood Reporter reported. It made nearly $25 million compared to $16 from second place "Captain America," over a month out from its release.
Starring Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann ("Knocked Up," every Judd Apatow movie), and swimsuit model Kate Upton, "The Other Woman," about three woman seeing the same man, two of which band together against the third in a near "There's Something About Mary" romantic alliance, didn't receive favorable reviews. NPR titled their reaction, "When Terrible Movies Happen to Funny Actresses."
The funny actresses NPR is referring to are Diaz and Mann. As what tends to happen when two appear in the same move, they combine for some funny moments -- but not enough, according to most reviews. Still, their collective pedigrees were enough to peak the country's interest.
Also driving interest was the third actress with the least experience, Kate Upton. The 21 year-old had never been a feature actress before "The Other Woman." Her only other film credits were 2011's "Tower Heist" and 2012's "The Three Stooges." In both she had bit parts.
For reasons difficult and easy to explain, Upton has easily been the country's most famous model over the last year or so. She isn't elegant like Tyra Banks or classicly created like Molly Sims. Instead, her style is decidely new school. Her mainstream profile has netted three Sports Illustrated's covers, two on their annual swimsuit editions and one on a regular issue pairing her with the Upton brothers of professional baseball.
The final reason helping "The Other Woman's" cause was its rating, according to the opinion Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst of box-office tracker Rentrak, gave to the Huffington Post.
"The rating was perfect," he told HuffPost. "If you are going for the mainstream audience who is looking for something that has a little bit of an edge, but not too much, you can hit that sweet spot and draw a large audience."