The box office results for the weekend of June 29th – July 1st has audiences squeezing a teddy bear and over-tipping strippers. R-rated shenanigans gave the industry a surprising jolt just in time for the second half of the summer blockbuster season. Here are the studio estimates:
1. Ted ($54.7 million)
2. Magic Mike ($39.1 million)
3. Brave ($34 million)
4. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection ($26.3 million)
5. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted ($11.8 million)
6. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter ($6 million)
7. Prometheus ($4.9 million)
8. Moonrise Kingdom ($4.8 million)
9. Snow White and the Huntsman ($4.4 million)
10. People Like Us ($4.3 million)
Analysis
Universal continued to bust out of their extended slump with Ted rising about its potential. The raunchy comedy from the mind of Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, will more than likely not have to stress out over the production budget of $50 million. It also set the mark for the highest opening for an original R-rated feature.
Magic Mike is making money hand over fist. It’s $7 million thong (production budget) got stuffed with plenty of dollar bills to ensure that the flick’s star and co-producer, Channing Tatum, is in fact a legit box office stud. Expect the decent reviews and the rest of the female, and rainbow loving male, population to boost its total during the week.
Just about every Tyler Perry movie is relatively cheap to make (around $20 million or less), so the opening for Madea’s Witness Protection is on par with all his other respective films; therefore, he will end up using the black ink when doing his accounting. But like all his products, week #2 usually sees a sharp decline.
The Avengers dropped out of the top ten after 9 weeks. It’s domestic total, which has set massive amount of records, has now reached $606.2 million.
The other newbie, People Like Us, opened in over 2,000 theaters yet they were clearly the odd-person left out. Disney really didn’t market this too well and when factoring in the mediocre reviews, that $16 million production budget, though relatively cheap, is going to keep this sucker in the red.
This week, specifically Tuesday, moviegoers will get the second monumental release of the 2012 summer season as The Amazing Spider-Man tries to capitalize on the always lucrative Fourth of July holiday. Competing with the franchise reboot is the Katy Perry: Part of Me documentary (Thursday release) and Oliver Stone’s Savages (Friday release). Reviews will be right here my fellow Shockers! Yes, even Katy Perry’s.
