Disney remains powerful, Sony proves successful with a surprising call and Warner Bros. proves anything but wonderful. This most accurately summarizes the weekend’s box office results, which saw Disney’s “Oz The Great And Powerful” maintain the top spot, Sony’s “The Call” make a surprisingly strong debut and Warner Bros.’ “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” opening in disaster.

Disney executives must be happy after their $215 million bet. “Oz The Great And Powerful” continued to dominate the box office for the second weekend in a row. The film maintained the top spot with $41.3 million, which gives it a 10-day total of $144.1 million. The film maintained box office success mainly because there is little family fare in the marketplace, and most kids are out of school for Spring Break.

Additionally, because the film is the first tentpole of the year, there was a carry-over effect from last weekend. Audiences were able to talk about the film and see it this weekend if they were unable to last weekend.

Taking the No. 2 spot was Sony’s recent acquisition, “The Call,” which opened with $17.1 million. The film’s surprisingly good opening can be attributed to both a successful marketing campaign by Sony and the star power of its lead, Halle Berry.

What is especially noteworthy is that Sony created a strong marketing campaign in such little time. After all, the studio acquired the film in early January, which only gave audiences a little more than two months to discover the film. As a part of the marketing campaign, Sony first released the trailer and television spots during crime and thriller shows to build awareness and target its female and African-American audiences. Additionally, Halle Berry went on multiple talk shows to promote the film, which proved successful given the film’s opening gross.

Warner Bros.’ new comedy, “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” opened in third place with a not-so-incredible $10.2 million. The film cost roughly $30 million to produce, plus an additional $10-$15 million for print and advertising expenses, and will most likely end up breaking even. The opening gross once again reveals that a film’s star power does not secure financial success. Though the film has big names in Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde and Oscar-winner Alan Arkin, audiences simply did not like the film or find it funny, as evidenced by its C+ rating on CinemaScore and 38-percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The debut is bad news for Warner Bros., which has had a terrible beginning of the year as a result of its slate of films that have not resonated with audiences, including “Gangster Squad,” “Bullet to the Head,” “Beautiful Creatures” and its most recent disaster, “Jack The Giant Slayer.” Hopefully Warner Bros. will have more success in the coming months with a slate that includes the anticipated “The Great Gatsby,” “The Hangover Part III” and “The Man of Steel.”

—Written by Ian Tecklin, staff writer, ijteckli@syr.edu