The box office results for the weekend of July 27th – 29th sees The Dark Knight Rises grossing as much as the rest of the top ten combined. With weak debuts from the new guys, Christopher Nolan’s trilogy-capper should be going over the $300 million domestic mark later this week. Here are the studio estimates:
1. The Dark Knight Rises ($64 million)
2. Ice Age: Continental Drift ($13.3 million)
3. The Watch ($13 million)
4. Step Up Revolution ($11.8 million)
5. Ted ($7.4 million)
6. The Amazing Spider-Man ($6.8 million)
7. Brave ($4.2 million)
8. Magic Mike ($2.5 million)
9. Savages ($1.8 million)
10. Moonrise Kingdom ($1.3 million)
Analysis
Seeing The Dark Knight Rises drop 60% in weekend #2 could be construed as alarming, yet the Monday-Thursday total was quite impressive to the tune of about $64 million-and-change. It’s domestic gross has jumped to $289 million which elevates its worldwide total to $465.1 million. Looks like the $250 million production budget was a safe bet (duh!). Also, moviegoers have not been rushing out to see this IMAX piece as in years’ past, with many citing how they wanted to avoid the massive crowds in the first couple weeks (yes, I did a mini-poll).
While R-rated comedies have been a hot commodity during the summer blockbuster season the last few years, The Watch will not be one of them. The star-studded cast of Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill had a terrible opening for Twentieth Century Fox. With a production budget of $68 million, this is definitely on Flop Alert.
Despite having the worst opening in the Step Up franchise, Step Up Revolution will not miss a beat thanks to overseas’ audiences. Spending $33 million to make this fourth installment (that nobody asked for), Lionsgate and Summit can take solace that the previous two installments ended up snagging $100 from the international crowd respectively. So in essence, this actually become a Sleeper even with poor reviews and lackluster domestic support.
Ted is killing it for Universal. Seth Macfarlane’s R-rated rauncher has reach $193.6 million stateside in 5 weeks of release. Meanwhile, Brave currently holds the longest streak in the top ten with 6 weeks and is now up to $217.2 million on the home-front. The Amazing Spider-Man has climbed to $242 million, solidifying that it will be the first Spidey installment not to cross the $300 million mark domestically.
Coming into theaters on Friday, there’s another edition of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and a remake in Total Recall. Reviews will be right here my fellow Shockers!
