Fashionably Late
July 14, 2009
The weekend at the box office was rather boring, at least as far as box office numbers go. We had no records broken, no blockbuster releases, and no films that shocked analysts, either on the high end or the low end. Total ticket sales were at $143 million, which is 12% lower than last weekend and 5.5% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-day, 2009 is still ahead of 2008 by 11.2%, $5.68 billion to $5.11 billion.
There's good news and bad news for Bruno.
Good news, the film finished in first place with $30.62 million, which is better than Borat earned during its first weekend in theaters.
Bad news, it had an internal multiplier of just 2.13, which is tiny.
Even with good reviews, that multiplier suggests its legs will be bad, really bad.
In fact, worst case scenario has the movie making less during the rest of its entire run than it did during the past three days.
Even if that does happen, however, it will likely still show a profit during its initial push into the home market, at the latest.
Ice Age - Dawn of the Dinosaurs earned $27.61 million over the weekend, lifting its total to $119.68 million.
In the process, it became the 15th film of the year to reach $100 million, while it could join the ranks of films that have reached $200 million, but it will be very close.
With Bruno landing on the lower end of expectations, Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen managed to finish on the higher end, earning $24.21 million over the past three days for a total of $339.22 million after nineteen.
$400 million remains a possibility, but $375 million is more likely.
This could leave it just outside the top ten on the all-time list, but it is still very impressive.
Public Enemies added $13.79 million over the weekend for a running tally of $66.22 million.
$100 million is its ultimate goal, but I'm not sure if it will get there.
The lack of direct competition should help.
The Proposal rounded out the top five with a better-than-expected performance of $10.60 million for a total of $113.86 million.
With a week-to-week drop-off of just 17.5%, the film should reach $150 million in total, if not more, which would make it one of the biggest romantic comedies of all time.
Speaking of one of the all-time greats, The Hangover was down just 12% to $9.93 million over the weekend for a total of $222.44 million.
It is now the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time, overtaking The Wedding Crashers.
At this pace, $250 million is almost assured, which would place it in the top 50 on the all-time list.
I don't think there is anyone who could honestly say they predicted that would happen.
The second wide release of the week was I Love You, Beth Cooper, which matched Thursday's prediction nearly perfectly with $4.92 million.
Given its reviews, its opening theater count, and its $18 million production budget, I think the studio will be satisfied with this.
I doubt it will do much business overseas, but it should find a profit sometime during its home market run.
Filed under: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Hangover, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, The Proposal, Public Enemies, Brüno, I Love You, Beth Cooper