Robin Hood Rich, but Can't Top Tony Stark
May 17, 2010
The overall box office this past weekend was adequate. While three of the top five films were unable to match Thursday's predictions, none were off by a significant degree. All combined, the box office brought in $139 million, which was down 22% compared to last week. Again, this was expected. Compared to last year it was higher, but by a mere 1.3%. Not enough to keep pace with inflation. Year-to-date, 2010 is still ahead of 2009 at $3.85 billion to $3.62 billion. However, due to the influx of 3D ticket sales and the much higher ticket prices they command, attendance is actually down by a fraction of a percent. It's nothing to worry about at the moment, but it is still interesting.
It was a good news / bad news weekend for Iron Man 2. It was able to remain in top spot, but with $52.04 million its sophomore stint decline was nearly 60%. That said, it has pulled in $211.20 million after just ten days of release and is on pace to match the original's domestic take, or at least come close. On the other hand, it appears Alice in Wonderland's perch on top of the 2010 box office is safe for now. That said, it may already have made enough money worldwide to show a profit, so the studio should be more than satisfied with the film's performance so far.
Robin Hood had a strong start at the box office, even though it had to settle for second place. It opened with $36.06 million over the weekend, which was on the high end of most people's expectations, but likely not enough for the film to earn $100 million domestically. Its reviews are just below 50% positive, which means they are neither going to help nor hurt the film going forward. It could still be a serious box office draw when Memorial Day long weekend rolls around. On the other hand, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time could prove to be too similar. This direct competition could kill its chances. We shall soon find out.
Letters to Juliet opened in third place with $13.54 million. This is a little lower than expectations, but close enough to call it a victory. Mixed reviews shouldn't be an issue, while the presence of Vanessa Redgrave could help the film's legs by pulling in an older demographic which doesn't tend to rush out to theaters the first weekend. Regardless, even average legs will mean it will match its production budget and that should put it on pace to break even sometime during its home market run.
Just Wright was the final wide release of the week, as it earned fourth place with $8.28 million, which was within a rounding error of Thursday's prediction. It earned the best reviews out of the three wide releases this week, but that's a little misleading, as it was only one percentage point above the competition. Assuming its production budget wasn't completely out of line, it could show a profit eventually. But it will have to do it on the home market.
As expected, How to Train Your Dragon and A Nightmare on Elm Street were in a close battle for fifth place. In fact, as predicted, they did switch places during the weekend. In the end, Dragon overtook Nightmare, $5.00 million to $4.66 million.
Looking in on the sophomore class, Babies fell out of the top ten with just $996,000 over the weekend and $3.88 million after two. It seems the market for documentaries is waning, but hopefully this is cyclical and we will see growth soon.
Filed under: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Letters to Juliet, How to Train Your Dragon, Robin Hood, Iron Man 2, Babies, Just Wright