Box Office Guru Wrapup: Expendables Seizes #1 spot
Elderly adrenaline ruled the North American box office as the bullet-filled action sequel The Expendables 2 opened at number one although with less muscle than its predecessor. Three other new films, each targeting a specific segment of the moviegoing public, also debuted and attracted respectable but not stellar grosses. But the variety of content from new and holdover pictures worked together to deliver a strong overall performance as the marketplace was substantially larger than normal for the middle of August with seven different movies breaking double-digit millions over the weekend.
Sylvester Stallone rounded up his boys and packed the guns for his latest action offering The Expendables 2 which captured the top spot with an estimated $28.8M opening weekend. The R-rated mega-pack of testosterone and lead averaged a good $8,670 from 3,316 theaters and played to the same older male fan base that powered its 2010 predecessor to a beefier $34.8M bow in mid-August of that summer. The new Lionsgate release tried to add more to the table. Joining returning stars like Jason Statham, Jet Li, and Dolph Lundgren were action heroes from yesteryear like Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme along with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis who took on bigger roles and more screen time. Stallone did not direct this $90M production as the chair was given to Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider).
The original Expendables was the first of its kind to combine so many macho action heroes under one roof. But that novelty was gone with the sequel which essentially followed the same formula adding some new faces to the mix for action fans that loved the machine gun flicks of the 1980s. Recent audience sensitivity to guns in the wake of several shootings around the country, and bomb scares at Carmike Cinemas on opening day, may have had some contribution to the 17% drop in opening weekend sales for the latest Expendables installment. But it is impossible to tell how much. Overall marketplace conditions may also have had an impact as every action movie over the past two months has opened either at or below expectations.
Demographics were about the same this second time around with males making up 63% of the audience, compared to 61% for the first flick. 65% were 25 or older. For a Stallone action sequel, reviews were actually quite good. And those that paid to see Expendables 2 did like it as the film earned an encouraging A- grade from CinemaScore. The first all-star combo pack went on to gross an impressive $103.1M domestically and $274M worldwide. This one too should rely on overseas audiences to kick in the bulk of the cash.
Rival August action pic The Bourne Legacy settled for second place and took a sequel-like fall of 55% to an estimated $17M. Universal has banked $69.6M in its first ten days for the new Jeremy Renner installment in the spy series. The last two Matt Damon films did slightly better in their second weekends with declines of 53% for 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum and 54% for 2004's The Bourne Supremacy although those were at or above the $100M mark by the sophomore session. Look for Legacy to end its run with roughly $115M as it joins this summer's latest chapters for Spider-Man, Ice Age, Step Up, and Men in Black as the lowest-grossing installment domestically of its franchise.
Focus gave a big launch to its 3D toon ParaNorman and scored a third place debut with an estimated $14M from a very wide 3,429 locations for a mild $4,085 average. The PG-rated stop-motion flick about a young boy who sees ghosts won rave reviews from film critics and had to compete with multiple other choices for kids from Disney and Fox. The CinemaScore was a respectable B+. With nothing new for youngsters next weekend, ParaNorman hopes to keep playing to its target audience until schools reopen for the new academic year.
Will Ferrell's political comedy The Campaign dropped 50% in the polls and collected an estimated $13.4M in its second term boosting the ten-day tally to $51.7M. The Warner Bros. release should end its run with about $85M which would be a solid result for an R-rated comedy.
Sony's summer recycling program of sequels, reboots, and remakes continued with the musical drama Sparkle which debuted in fifth with an estimated $12M from 2,244 theaters for a decent $5,348 average. Starring American Idol champ Jordin Sparks and the late Whitney Houston in her final role, the PG-13 film played overwhelmingly to an older female crowd as studio research showed that the audience was 74% female and 62% over the age of 35. A remake of the classic film from 1976, Sparkle earned mixed reviews from critics but truly won over paying audiences. Its CinemaScore grade was a solid A. But despite that high score, sales slipped on Saturday and the overall weekend average was not as high as those for many other films aimed at mature African-American women. Direct competition is minimal over the next couple of weeks so it may have a chance to hold up giving the low cost $14M production a profitable run.
Super hero juggernaut The Dark Knight Rises fell out of the top five in its fifth frame with an estimated $11.1M, off a respectable 41%. The Warner Bros. threequel smashed the $400M mark on Friday in its 29th day of release and has upped its domestic total to $409.9M allowing Bane and his goons to climb up to number 12 on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters passing the $407.7M of last spring's blockbuster The Hunger Games. A sensational $58.8M of the Batgross has come from IMAX locations. Overseas, Rises rose up to $487.8M surpassing the $469.7M lifetime international gross of The Dark Knight while stabilizing its decline to 42%. The worldwide haul now stands at $897.7M with Greece, Italy, and the key Chinese market still to open over the next two weeks.
Opening in seventh place was the tween dramedy The Odd Life of Timothy Green with an estimated $10.9M over the weekend and $15.2M over the five days since its Wednesday launch. The PG-rated film averaged a lukewarm $4,199 from 2,598 sites over three days and played mostly to moms and kids. Families made up 53% of the crowd while females were 68%. Reviews were not too good but moviegoers were satisfied with their experience as the Disney pic earned an A- from CinemaScore. Opening head-to-head against ParaNorman certainly split some of the family crowd which already had other brand-based options to choose from.
Sony's older-skewing comedy Hope Springs with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones held up well in its second weekend as expected slipping 38% to an estimated $9.1M for a ten-day total of $35.1M. A final of $60-70M could result. Fox's kid sequel Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days tumbled 52% to an estimated $3.9M while Sony's remake Total Recall rounded out the top ten with an estimated $3.5M falling a steep 56%. Cumes stand at $38.8M and $51.8M, respectively.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $123.7M which was up 27% from last year when The Help climbed into the number one spot in its second weekend with $20M; and up 21% from 2010 when The Expendables remained on top with $17M.
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Janson Jinnistan
Dark Knight Rises is only 12 million from the billion mark. A finish around 1.2 billion would be a respectable silver medal this year.
Bomb threats? At only Carmike theaters? Some people are obviously not getting laid enough.
The '76 Sparkle wasn't really a "classic", although the Aretha Franklin album is. Not to defend the remake, but just to keep some perspective on these things. Sparkle wasn't even on Mahogany's level.
Aug 19 - 03:56 PM
Bigbrother .
Gave you some bad gouge on the The Dark Knight Returns release. Looks like it's last week of Sep. Now like Sep 25th.
Aug 19 - 04:47 PM
Gordon Terry
be sure to VOTE DEMOCRATIC on November 2nd, Big Brother . . . no "bad gouge" Republicans y'hear. The Dark Knight is a very "democratic" film. People are saying that Paul Ryan is weird---so don't repeat the mistake you made in 2008 by voting Republican.
Aug 20 - 01:17 PM
Jim Collins
Democratic and "Big Brother"; yup a party that's sunk several Trillion bucks in debt AND expanded the role of the Fed in small business.
OBTW Congress was a Demo majority 2006, yup the Bush administration.
Aug 20 - 04:48 PM
Bigbrother .
If you're serious I'm actually leaning toward Mitten's over the Obamanator right now. Convince me.
Aug 20 - 11:36 PM
Janson Jinnistan
A person who doesn't pay their tax rate shouldn't be talking about what the country can and can't afford. Plus he wants another 20% tax cut while raising defense spending. It's hard to take him seriously on the "need" to cut less expensive social programs. He's just too much of a coward to admit he isn't willing to pay for them.
Aug 21 - 01:46 PM
Infernal Dude
@ Gordon. How was TDKR Democratically leaning? Because of the Occupy similarities? I have commented on this before and I still feel that it is more anti-Occupy.
@ Jim. Two wars are very expensive. And I'd rather have my tax dollars wasted on Solindra for research into alternative energy than to fucking rich blowhards who only shuffle numbers, make BILLIONS from it, and hurt middle America.
@ Bigbrother. Obama has shit the bed in a lot of ways. But a first term with a congress that won't pass shit doesn't help. I'm going with what won bush the election in '04. "Stay the course."
.....and I'm happy to see Expendables 2 get the top spot.
Aug 21 - 06:35 PM
Christopher Kulik
Why would anyone vote Democrat or Republican this year?
Aug 21 - 10:28 PM
Dave J
"I'm going with what won bush the election in '04. "Stay the course."
Even if it means costing a few thousand lives to do it! Another typical right wing response!
Aug 22 - 11:47 AM
Dave J
You say to vote Republican, yet it is the Republicans that first got us into war in the first place against the wrong country which is Iraq instead of going after Bin Laden in Afganistan and Pakistan- Oh,this makes a lot of sense! Want to go to war- vote Republican!
Aug 22 - 11:52 AM
Infernal Dude
@Dave. Did you even read what I said? How is saying we should stick with Obama even close to a typical Republican response.
Aug 22 - 12:54 PM
Dave J
You're correct! Apparently, at the time I was reading your comment, I got a little distracted and doing two things at the same time- I should've been careful next time!
Aug 22 - 02:42 PM
Bigbrother .
Yeah, but he also had a couple years with a pretty massive democratic majority and didn't get anything done then either. Not in favor of tax cuts either J, but I think with the state of the world today, the ache's we went thru at the start of Afghanistan and Iraq, The rise of China and the massive cutbacks in the wrong area's during the current administration I don't have heartache with an increase in defense spending. If it comes down to paying a kid to defend our country or paying someone whose been unemployed long enough to draw welfare to have more children I know who I'm gonna pick every time. I don't think Obama has been a disaster as President, but I also think he hasn't lived up to his promises or been a success by my standards either. I'm gonna give the other guy a shot. P.S. saying don't vote for Romney because Bush got us into wars is like saying we shouldn't vote Democrat because FDR got us into WWII or LBJ in Vietnam. Different guys with different regime's and different agenda's. Interesting side note I think you'll actually find most of the countries wars were ironically begun when Democrats were in office. I don't think there's a connection, but I always find it funny when my Democrat friends try to paint Republicans as war mongers.
Aug 22 - 09:08 PM
Infernal Dude
@ Bigbrother. Yes. FDR did get us into WW2. I think that we can see now that was a good thing. Fighting and winning that war sustained this country for decades. And I don't have a problem spending tax dollars on soldiers, but thats not where the defense spending goes. Vet benefits, pensions, and the nuclear programs are an entirely different line item. Defense spending is mostly F35s, air craft carriers, and subs. Most of which do NOTHING and are scrapped after 20 years for a new model. We gave the other guy a chance between 2000 - 2008. The trickle down thing doesn't work.
Aug 23 - 06:18 AM
Dave J
I think the real question here Bigbrother is that out of all the wars in the past 100 years or so (at least as long as we had the military armory) how many wars that involved the U.S. were 100% justified? That's the real question because we both know that troops didn't have to fight in Iraq but should've invaded Afganistan or where ever Osama Bin Laden's been secluding which was in Pakistan, with the weird thing was that all it took was a few SEALS men to do do him off. This pointless war with Iraq resulted close to 4,000 to 6,000 lives as opposed to the Taliban which always resided in Afganistan and may have expanded to Iraq which they didn't do before which "no" 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' were never found nor did Iraq had anything to do with 9/11 whatsoever even though some people still believed it to be true just because it's what Bush had said making the assumption that the only reason former President Bush invaded Iraq in the first place was for only the "oil" instructed by his CEO friends, and it's funny that it was the Democrats that had to end it too but are not praised for this decision. And we both know that the Vietnam war was 100% "un"justified but it was former President Dwight Eisenhhower who was a Republican that went to war with Vietnam in the first place with both Nixon and then Ford to end it- the record speaks for itself! The truth of the matter is that for some strange reason the only way some average Joe can get any respectable employment is by going to war which should not be the reason for anyone to sign up - their shouldn't be a price on peoples lives unless it's a legitimate one!
Aug 23 - 12:37 PM
Janson Jinnistan
Oh, fun. Political diversions. Well, since it's my comment thread, I guess I'll point out a couple of things. First, Dave, Eisenhower didn't start the war in Vietnam. It's true we were actually supporting the Cong when they were fighting France in the 50s. But the real beginning of the war is generally accepted as the Gulf of Tonkin incident from '64. That incident turned out to be utterly bogus, but there you go. Oliver Stone has an interesting theory on that.
Whether or not FDR had pre-knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack (which isn't proven) doesn't interest me. The Axis would have come knocking sooner or later, so it was a necessary war. So you got Truman for Korea, LBJ for Vietnam...and that's it. If you want to credit Clinton for that Kosovo thing, then I suppose we ought to go right ahead and include Nixon's illegal bombing of Cambodia or Reagan's invasion of Grenada while we're at it. (I'll be nice and leave out all the proxy wars and Reagan's covert Central American wars.) Let's just cancel out both Reagan and Obama's Libyan bombings. As for the other activity under Obama, one of my biggest complaints about him is that he clearly decided to let the Pentagon do what they want to do without interfering too much. And, btw, it simply isn't honest to say that Obama (or the Dems) ended the Iraqi war. First, it implies that a couple hundred people still aren't killed per week over there. Also, Panetta was trying to negotiate a Status of Forces agreement right up until the deadline expired for us to leave (a deadline set up by W). We didn't end the war, the Iraqis kicked us out - an important distinction.
The "job creators" can't complain about taxes (that they don't pay) going to unemployment benefits. I feel like that's worth repeating, but I won't bother.
Aug 23 - 01:37 PM
Dave J
Well, I was only talking about who was President at the time pointing out that it was during Obama's administration which brought most or all of the troops back from Iraq. And you may be a little too precise regarding the Vietnam war, but I just want to say that before FDR going to war with Nazi Germany he was going by the 'Geneva Convention' which usually was never followed by the Nazis!
Aug 23 - 02:17 PM
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Aug 24 - 08:07 AM
Mazyar Goodarz
What is your source for the TDKR box office?
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=batman3.htm
Aug 21 - 07:27 PM
Janson Jinnistan
Your link is actually a couple million more than the article above, putting DKR at 899 million. What was your question again?
Aug 23 - 01:23 PM