The box office results for the weekend of August 12th – 14th has “Apes” holding off the new arrivals as it continues its impress march in theaters. And in other news, “Glee,” financially, hits a sour note. Here are the studio estimates:
1. Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($27.5 million)
2. The Help ($25.5 million)
3. Final Destination 5 ($18.4 million)
4. The Smurfs ($13.5 million)
5. 30 Minutes or Less ($13 million)
6. Cowboys & Aliens ($7.6 million)
7. Captain America: The First Avenger ($7.1 million)
8. Crazy, Stupid, Love ($6.9 million)
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 ($6.8 million)
10. The Change-Up ($6.2 million)
11. Glee: The 3D Concert ($5.7)
Analysis
First off, let us officially recognize the newly crowned domestic king of 2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The grand finale has easily slid past the former king in Transformers: Dark of the Moon – which has grossed over $1 billion worldwide – and the HP franchise’s top grossing installment is now up to $356 million on the domestic front. Factoring in its overseas totals, Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has become the 3rd highest grossing movie of all-time ($1.1 billion), trailing only Avatar and Titanic respectively.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes was able to maintain its reign, dropping just 50% from its opening weekend (excellent for the summer season). The reboot of the cult franchise has now crossed the $100 million mark and could be yiedling Twentieth Century Fox some profits in the next couple weeks. The production budget was $90 million, but word-of-mouth and the endorsement from the majority of critics should give this a strong chance at making some coin during its theatrical run.
As for the newbies, The Help came in with positive buzz and has lived up to the hype thus far. With a strong approval rating from critics – and Oprah – the flick based off the popular novel is well on its way to seeing the black ink on the balance sheet. DreamWorks only had to drop $25 million for this piece to come to fruition and this should be able to double that number by next weekend.
R-rated comedies have been gold this year, yet 30 Minutes or Less is one of the rare ones to struggle out of the gate (at least The Change-Up has some company now). The mildly reviewed and controversial flick rang up a $28 million production bill, so the lackluster opening isn’t a deathblow by any means. However, this will probably have to rely on a DVD & On-Demand run to earn some sort of profit.
Isn’t Glee supposed to be the latest phenomenon? Apparently not. Good news, the piss-poor opening doesn’t look as bad when considering this only cost $9 million to produce. Glee: The 3D Concert is a dud compared to other concert-films, but it won’t be destroy Fox’s balance sheet, for it will eventually turn a profit.
And finally, it’s that time of year when the Final Destination franchise releases the same movie once again. Final Destination 5 came in with the 3D again and the production bill shot up to $40 million (just like last year’s entry). Even with the inflated 3D ticket prices, the opening will fail to match the last two sequels, which shows that the domestic audience is growing tired of the same old story, same old song & dance. Fortunately for Warner Bros. & New Line, the overseas crowds eat this crap up and title should go over $100 million mark worldwide.
Flop Alert: Just to make it official, The Change-Up is a goner. Nearly falling out of the top ten in its second week and only grossing half of its production budget of $52 million, leads us to feeling sorry for Universal Pictures once again.
Sleeper Hit: The Help. That’s all we have.
This Friday brings another quartet of new guys to the theaters: Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night remakes are coming in to play with Spy Kids 4. Releasing in roughly 1,600 theaters will be the romantic-drama One Day. Reviews will be right here my fellow Shockers!
Report by Joe Belcastro
