In a rather standard weekend at the movies, Sacha Baron Cohen’s new mock-u-comedy Bruno brought in an estimated $30.5 million against Fox’s wide release, the broad Graduation Night comedy I Love You Beth Cooper, which fell head-over-heels with an estimated $5 million. For general box office projections, see the article in Variety. For a more detailed estimation of the full weekend, go Box Office Mojo.
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Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs held strong with $28.5 million in its second week, roaring past $100 million domestic earnings to a solid $120 million. Public Enemies and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen had standard fall-offs, both dropping a little more than 40 percent.
Countering the standard is both The Proposal and The Hangover, sporting extremely small drops for now-a-days’ ‘first weekend or no weekend” audience. Both have performed well above both their budgets and projected earnings.
At this rate, it appears that The Hangover will take over the spot for top-domestic grossing R-rated comedy, a position currently held by Beverly Hills Cop at $234 million.
This summer has been all over the place in terms of critical reception vs. commercial reception. Some well-received, smaller films haven’t caught on (Moon, The Hurt Locker) while other lukewarm, studio films are doing just fine (Public Enemies, The Proposal).
Meanwhile, some high-profile, critically-panned films (Terminator Salvation) have bombed while a film like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has already become one of the Top 15 highest grossing films despite being one of the worst reviewed films of the year.
Looking back to last summer, in which three tops films (The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) were all critically praised, this summer is far less predictable and a tad nerveracking when considering the future of both the big-budget studio film and the low-low budget indie.
Only time (and Harry Potter) will tell.
What do think of the recent box office trends?