The box office results for the weekend of August 17th – 19th sees a dream team of action stars takeover once again. Expendables 2 lead a late summer surge in what ended up being a sturdy and balanced affair for most of the top ten. Here are the studio estimates:
1. The Expendables 2 ($28.7 million)
2. The Bourne Legacy ($17 million)
3. ParaNorman ($14 million)
4. The Campaign ($13.3 million)
5. Sparkle ($12 million)
6. The Dark Knight Rises ($11.1 million)
7. The Odd Life of Timothy Green ($10.9 million)
8. Hope Springs ($9.1 million)
9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days ($3.8 million)
10. Total Recall 2012 ($3.5 million)
Analysis
As the summer blockbuster season winds down, having seven flicks post double figures at this time of year, and the tenacious Hope Springs being right in that area, Hollywood could salvage what is shaping up to be the worst summer season since 2007. And that’s coming off a record setting 2011.
The Expendables 2 needed $100 million worth of artillery to produce the sequel of nostalgic action. While the opening is roughly $6 million less than the first installment, the overseas numbers will more than justify the existence of this when it is all said and done. There will be a third, folks.
All the rest of the newbies tried to play the alternative game since it was a forgone conclusion that Stallone’s reunion would easily secure the top spot. Sparkle went with a casual musical/melodrama and scored a decent take off the production budget of $14 million. This will need to hold up for a couple weeks to off set the marketing costs and see the black ink. ParaNorman was the obligatory 3D animation to be released and did fairly well considering it is not an established franchise. Focus Features has yet to post the production budget so its fate is unknown at the moment. And then there’s Disney chiming in with The Odd Life of Timothy Green. The wholesome family flick opened on a Wednesday and is now up to just over $15 million. For it to have any chance at a theatrical profit, it’s going to need some legs to bank off the production budget of $40 million.
The Dark Knight Rises currently holds the longest streak in the top ten with 5 weeks. Now up to $409.9 million domestically – good for #12 on the all-time chart, this should be able to crack the top ten by Labor Day and sit comfortably at #9. It also passed The Hunger Games ($408 million) for the 2nd highest grossing domestic flick in 2012, trailing only Marvel’s The Avengers (just under $618 million).
Flop Alert (finally): Total Recall 2012. With three weeks in the bag, the $125 million produced remake is just about tapped out on the domestic front (currently sitting at $51.7 million), and the international scene isn’t providing the usual safety net it does for the majority of blockbusters the last few years (worldwide total is around $80 million).
This week, the action/comedy/romance Hit and Run opens up on Wednesday. Coming in on the traditional Friday docket is a horror product in The Apparition, and another action piece titled Premium Rush. Reviews will be right here my fellow Shockers!
