Like clockwork, you can expect Pixar’s offerings to tower over the American animation competition. Fortunately for them, you can also count on them to tower over box office competition, as “Up”‘s debut is the highest for the studio since 2003’s “Finding Nemo” which scored $70 million in the opening frame and went on to be the studio’s most successful movie. The $68.2 million number was probably goosed by the IMAX 3D sales, boding well for future Disney Digital releases, and with word of mouth strong and little animation competition until July’s “Ice Age” installment, expect “Up” to be one of the studio’s biggest earners.
While losing more than half its audience, “Night At The Museum: Battle At The Smithsonian” still did moderately well in the wake of the Pixar beast, bringing in $25.5 million. Cresting the $100 million mark this weekend, it still remains a bit behind the pace of the original, which opened smaller, but all things considered, this is a big winner for FOX. Coming in at third with a slightly disappointing weekend was “Drag Me To Hell.” Most likely midbudgeted, the picture still only brought in $16.6 million when most expected upwards of $20. It’s an unusual audience picture and its benefiting from great word of mouth, so its not too late for “Drag” to holdover if the studio has faith in its performance.
The news wasn’t so rosy for “Terminator Salvation.” Losing over 60% of its audience, it came in fourth with $16.1 million. Let this be a lesson in franchise management- some stories are finite to the audience, and while they may still carry value due to a marquee name (Schwarzenegger), the audience knows when a brand name is tapped out. Certainly, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” which mucked up and contorted series continuity, didn’t help out much in this department. With Halycon memorably breaking some kneecaps to get this made, don’t be surprised if the franchise merely lays low for awhile, though the operative word will eventually be, ugh, “reboot.”
At $209 million, “Star Trek” is not only the surprise winner of the May blockbuster sweepstakes, but also the year’s highest grossing film. It clocked in at fifth with $12.8 million and with enough support, there’s an outside chance it could lap “Terminator” in the coming weeks. “Trek” still isn’t a worldbeater considering a cost some tag as being in the neighborhood of $180-200, but a lot of times, the victory comes in the competition, and even with a possible wait for DVD to turn profit (international numbers remain so-so), Paramount is crowing about being number one. The optimism of “Trek” trumping the bleak apocalyptic appeal of “Terminator”- there’s a political thesis there. The rest of the lineup stayed fairly similar, with “Angels And Demons” at sixth crossing the $100 million mark- it probably finishes out at a respectable $120-$130, with international numbers just killin’ it. Irrespectably, it’s a piece of shit, and while its not relevant, we can’t say these things enough.
Summit Entertainment continues to expand “The Brothers Bloom” but still can’t get it into the top ten, as it resides at #11, with less than $1.5 to show for four weeks of release, and looking like the season’s biggest indie flop. Two Oscar winners and Mark Ruffalo do not a winner make in this atmosphere, and someone’s bound to get fired for this. Meanwhile, Best Foreign Film Oscar winner “Departures” debuted on nine screens to $73k, while IFC might have a moneymaker on their hands with Oliver Assayas’ small family drama “Summer Hours,” which has tallied a three-week cume of $578k.
1. Up- $68.2 million
2. Night At The Museum: This Shit Again- $25.5 million ($105 mil)
3. Drag Me To Hell- $16.6 million
4. Terminator: Muted Color Palette- $16.1 million ($90 mil)
5. Lens Flare Future- $12.8 million ($209 mil)
6. Tom Hanks Hides And Waits For The Fire Department- $11.2 million ($105 mil)
7. Dance Flick- $4.9 million ($19 mil)
8. X-Men Origins: Wolverine- $3.9 million ($171 mil)
9. Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past- $1.9 million ($50 mil)
10. Obsessed- $665k ($67 mil)
Shame, I really thought DMtH was going to clean up this weekend. Word of mouth will be great for it with younger crowds though, I bet it has legs.
Yay Up. Yay Trek. Nice to see the good guys win once in awhile.
Bloom flopping? It’s only on 150 screens. Who taught you math?
You have some misinformation on Brothers Bloom.
It has only been out since May 15th and is doing quite well.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/
The Brothers Bloom is only in 148 theaters and it almost cracked the top ten and it still could by the actuals tomorrow. Do you guys even know what you are trying to talk about? Its the only movie that went up this weekend in attendance while most of the films already out went down.
You guys really need learn what you are trying to cover.
Check out the Brothers Bloom street team in full effect. So cute.
“The Brothers Bloom” should be averaging at least $7k per screen in its third weekend, which, despite expansion, is a reachable number for a “major” indie release. In fairness to the film, it shouldn’t have this deathly slow platforming strategy, and its performance would be acceptable for a cheapie indie effort, but this is a $10-$20 million picture. The heat from the film has dissipated- with hopes for at least a 500 screen engagement, they’d need to still be averaging $10k a theater at this point, so its clear the heat has come off the film. If Summit sinks major $ into the ad campaign, they could boost the film’s profile, but at this point that would be throwing money after money. This movie is three weekends out and is not even close to sniffing a profit. This is one of those cases where the flop heat goes to the studio and not the film, but right now, the numbers are VERY discouraging.
For a film( “The Brothers Bloom”) that is really being pushed more by word of mouth than any real advertising and only in 148 movie theaters( Which let’s face it, it really has no advertising outside of a trailer and some web ads) its take so far is still good. Whether it makes back its budget however is the big question.
I do agree with you that the studio really dropped the ball here. It could have been a real crossover hit if they tried to put some money into really advertising this film but who ever thought up this slow burn strategy really hurt this film chances. Who know, maybe they will get up off their asses and really push the film now but with the fury of the summer movie season in full swing, that’s will be a problem.
Let’s hope they will try to expand it and give this film a fighting chance.
Thanks for your time:)
Up is actually the best opener for Pixar since 2004’s The Incredibles, not Finding Nemo – The Incredibles opened to about $200k more than Nemo. A minor point, but, y’know…