That’s it, that’s enough. The founding fathers had it wrong. All men aren’t created equal. Some choose to spend their money on things that make them better. And some willingly pay for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” The proudly ignorant rape of celluloid again tied for a position atop the box office, scoring $42.5 million for a domestic total of $293 million. Making money at a cartoonish rate, the film only needed a week and a half to surpass “Up” as the year’s highest grossing picture, as entertainment options for moviegoers proved slim, President Barack Obama apparently ordering all libraries, museums and video rental stores to be closed for the holiday weekend.
Debuting at what is being estimated as a tie for first was “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.” It’s a major face saving move to overestimate the film’s opening weekend, since it’s a huge black eye to not take 60% out of “Transformers”‘s opening and not take #1. We’re not sure what it was, but it does seem Fox dialed down their expectations for this one, as promotion seemed slim, and the $67.5 million five-day opening seems below-standard for big budget CGI toons. The last film debuted with $68 million on a three-day weekend- perhaps the franchise outlived its usefulness? It’s sure to have legs, as all ‘toons do, but with “Up” still performing, is there a chance CG-toon-craving audiences will eventually opt for “Up” over the tired-sounding “Ice Age”‘s third weekend? Coming in at #3 was Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies,” which took in $26.2 million for the three day, finishing its five-day weekend at $41 million. Audience reaction seems to be similar to that of Mann’s “Miami Vice,” which dropped 60% in its second weekend, and if “Enemies” can’t coast over $100 million domestically, there might be some truth to the recent rumors of Mann being done at big studios- at the least, he’ll probably be forced to do a comic book movie or sequel or something.
After dropping half of it audience in its second weekend, “The Proposal” boasted a muscular 69% hold with $12.8 million, good for fourth place. Soon to cross $100 million, its bound to hold over well enough until its chief competitor, “The Ugly Truth,” hits in three weeks. “The Hangover,” meanwhile, crossed $200 million this weekend, and it will surpass “The Wedding Crashers”‘s $209 million score by midweek. With “Ice Age” in theaters, “Up” took its first sizable hit, losing half its audience to gross $6.6 million, bringing its total to $265 million. “My Sister’s Keeper” looks like the deadest fish in the water, losing 57% of its audience for a two week total of $26 mil.
Sony’s quit on the badly-bleeding “Year One” to get “The Taking Of Pelham 123” to $70 million (it clocks in shy of $60 this weekend), while out of the top ten, “Star Trek” brought it’s total to a shade under $250. “Away We Go” edged it’s cume past $6 million, while “Whatever Works” expanded not too impressively to the tune of $1.1 million with a $3k per screen average. “Moon” expanded to a little under fifty theaters for a $300k gross on a $6k per screen average, while “The Hurt Locker” might be the week’s biggest success. It’s business dropped slightly despite an expansion into nine theaters, but it brought in $126k, scoring a $14k per screen average, easily the best of any film this week.
1. Transformers: The Decline Of Western Civilization- $42.5 million ($293 mil)
1. Ice Age: Historically Inaccurate- $42.5 million ($67 mil)
3. Public Enemies- $26 million ($41 mil)
4. The Proposal- $12.8 million ($91 mil)
5. The Hangover- $10.4 million ($204 mil)
6. Up- $6.6 million ($265 mil)
7. John Cassavetes Birthed A Hack- $5.3 million ($26 mil)
8. The Taking Of Pelham 8, 9, 11- $2.5 million ($58 mil)
9. Night At The Museum: Battle At The Smithsonian- $2.1 million ($168 mil)
10. Year One- $2.1 million ($38 mil)
"…he'll probably be forced to do a comic book movie or sequel or something."
Batman 3 perhaps? Didn't Nolan say that HEAT was an influence on TDK?
Like Public Enemies, Miami Vice was a Universal movie. Unless they had a 2-movie deal with Mann, they must have had some success with Vice in order to bring him back. His other movies were each with a different studio (boxofficemojo.com)
I've been reading The Playlist blog since October/November and with this summer action/animation box-office dueling movie season I can feel the pulling-for and championing of quality movies like State of Play, Hurt Locker. Even Public Enemies, which the Playlist writers seemed to have liked but were left wanting a little more. The mention of buying tickets for "The Informant" was another instance. I guess the times call for it.
I think it's worth weighing the positives of Good to great movies more so than the negatives, even when being critical. And in a way, giving it the benefit of the doubt.
The $41 million Public Enemies has so far is solid. The movie would have had at least $26 million on any weekend of the year so we'll see how well it holds week to week.
Bruno and I Love You Beth Cooper come out next weekend (ILYBC probably doesn't have the same audience anyway; Bruno will take away audience, but will it be a greater share it takes away than any other higher-profile new release?)
Then Harry Potter opens in a week and a half.
After that:
G-Force, The Orphan, The Ugly Truth, Aliens in the Attic, The Collector, The Janky Promoters, and finally Funny People.
I'm want to see Public Enemies do well.
Plant.
It doesn't look too great when your Johnny Depp movie opens at #3 so that's why I don't completely understand why they'd open in the Summer. Having PE open at #1 some other weekend of the year would have given it a bigger push for following weekends.
American Gangster was another $100 million production from Universal, also rated-R, and it opened November 2nd to $43 million (even beating an animated movie, Bee Movie $38mil).
So why take on two animated power-houses in the summer I don't know. Michael Mann and his digital camera probably weren't the ones making this choice.
Poor Mann. I guess this is it for him. I enjoyed the film despite it's obvious flaws. it looks like Citizen Kane compared to all the other studio movies from this summer. Universal is hurting right now. Bruno better perform or they're screwed. I see a change in power over there happening very quickly.
As much as I hate that Mann may have to temper the scope of his projects, the idea of him doing some low-budget films along the lines of Thief and Collateral (which I'm assuming would have had half the budget if someone like Edward Norton and Don Cheadle had played the roles instead of Cruise and Foxx) is exciting. Or maybe an HBO series? How great would that be? A small silver lining to this I suppose.
Don't you guys think the "funny" titles here are a little old? They're something Sexman would come up with.
Anonymous? More like 'dumbonymous'! AM I RITE, GUYEZ?