Weekend Box Office: ‘Harry Potter’ Breaks Open The Kitty; ‘Bruno’ Shits The Bed

It was no surprise that, with a wide-open marketplace and strong word-of-mouth, that the “Harry Potter” juggernaut would continue. It didn’t do “Transformers” business, but it still smashed along at a $159.7 million five day weekend and a $79.5 three day, top-heavy with the biggest midnight screenings in blockbuster history. The core audience hasn’t seen Potter on the big screen for more than a year, so they were certainly hungry, but it’s hard to be too enthusiastic about future prospects given this is the sixth film in the series, and never destined to earn new fans. Even with a sharp fall-off in the coming weeks, this “Potter” will safely land in the same $300-ish range as the others, though with it’s more stately subject matter, few expect it to surpass the original’s $317 take.

At #2 and #3, “Ice Age” and “Transformers” continue to jockey for position. While international proves that its all gravy for this slightly underperforming animated sequel, the “Transformers” folk have to be more than a little peeved. Profit-sharing makes this monster hit still a questionable score for Paramount, and they’d like the $200 million opener to get to $400 domestic, which may be dicey given that it stands at $364 million without much left in the tank. While most studios don’t care that their blockbusters have a short shelf life, the boffo opening may not be enough for even a sure thing like the fighting robot series.

“Bruno” meanwhile, is giving analysts an excuse to dissect American audiences. The evidence is that word-of-mouth is toxic, with a reported C rating on Cinemascore- which doesn’t seem bad until you realize that uncritical audiences give nearly every movie an A on Cinemascore, and a C is unprecendented. The fact that statistic got press in any way suggests someone putting a hit out on audiences- “Bruno” was generally well-received by critics, but Cinemascore does not make their grades public, at least not since “Solaris” scored their first-ever F. Expect armchair box office critics to suggest that America can’t take the homosexuality, and that once people learned that the ads masked the explicit gay content, they stayed away. In a way, the opening weekend is victory itself for this sort of subject matter. Sacha Baron Cohen dropped a bomb within the marketplace, and he’s getting away with it, thanks to his $30 million payday. While the box office tally won’t be all too impressive (unquestionably, this will be the lowest grossing film to open north of $30 million), expect the film to make many fans on DVD.

Sandra Bullock’s “The Proposal” is now her biggest hit, and perhaps proof of Ryan Reynolds’ newfound A-List status, while “The Hangover,”still in the top five, has officially become the highest grossing R-rated comedy in history. One wonders how well the cast’s star power translates to other projects- Zack Galifinakis’ is the first one being tested with next weekend’s “G-Force,” though that’s a totally different demographic- that film’s ad campaign has definitely placed him at the forefront, however. “Public Enemies” has stumbled in its bid for $100 million and will likely stall at $90. A bit of off-season counterprogramming, “Public Enemies” was a gamble, and it didn’t pay off. The message to Michael Mann and the studios is probably that they need to keep costs down. You wonder if the people who want to make that “Moneyball” movie have even read that damn book, because applying the principles of cost-saving methods, you’d conclude that “Enemies” would safely cost no more than $70 million, and not the robust, Mann-standard $100.

“500 Days Of Summer” opened in 27 theaters and scored a spectacular indie victory, pulling in $838k for a weekend-best $31k per screen average, which bodes well for further expansion. “The Hurt Locker” added more theaters and pulled in $760k for a $2.2 total so far (see this movie, guys), while all the way at the bottom of the list is a little indie named “War Horse, Arkansas,” which did a strong $14k in only two theaters in Texas.

1. Harry Potter And The Narrative Wheel-Spinning- $79.5 million/$159 mil.
2. Ice Age: Revenge Of The Fallen- $17.7 million/$152 mil.
3. Transformers: Dawn of the Dinosaurs- $13.8 million/$364 mil.
4. Bruno- $8.4 million/$50 mil.
5. The Hangover- $8.3 million/$236 mil.
6. The Proposal- $8.3 million/$128 mil.
7. Public Enemies- $7.6 million/$79 mil.
8. Up- $3.2 million/$280 mil.
9. My Sister’s Keeper- $2.8 million/$42 mil.
10. I Love You Beth Cooper- $2.6 million/$10 mil.