After three solid weeks atop the domestic box office, ‘The Dark Knight’ has finally fallen not just one, but two spots down the rankings. That’s not to say that final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman series isn’t still raking in cash, because it is. The movie earned another $19.5 million domestically and another $32.4 million overseas, which brings its four-weekend worldwide total to $835.4 million.
No big surprise, the spin-off/sequel to Matt Damon’s ‘Bourne Trilogy‘ took the #1 spot this weekend with $40.2 million. That’s up from the $27 million opening of ‘The Bourne Identity’, but down from the $52.5 million opening of ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ or the $69 million opening of ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’. Considering that Damon, the primary name and face associated with the franchise, is completely absent for this entry, its $40 million opening is good but not great. Universal might just have to mediate the supposed differences between Damon and writer/director Tony Gilroy in order to bring Jason Bourne back.
I’m absolutely baffled as to why $27.4 million worth of audiences thought it would be a good idea to see the new Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis political comedy ‘The Campaign‘. With a budget of $60 million, Warner Bros. has already expressed excitement for the successful opening.
The middle-age adult relationship comedy ‘Hope Springs‘ debuted to a very strong fourth-place total of $15.6 million. The film has now grossed $20 million since its Wednesday premiere. While this total is identical to Meryl Streep’s ‘Julie & Julia‘, the new movie targets older audiences and isn’t expected to reach the same heights as that earlier hit.
Rounding out the Top 5 was the week-old ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days‘ with $8.2 million. Although the latest sequel opened drastically lower than the second film in this franchise, its second weekend fared much better, falling only 44%.
Last week, we talked about how the opening of ‘Total Recall‘ mirrored that of ‘Battleship’ earlier in the year. Unfortunately, this week proved that ‘Recall’ might sink even faster. Although the remake performed better during weekdays, its second weekend slip (down to $8.2 million, a shocking 68.3% from last weekend) was $3 million lower than the comparable weekend for ‘Battleship’.
The 3D ‘Nitro Circus: The Movie‘ opened in 13th place with a sad $1.1 million, despite showing on 800 screens. With a summer opening, I can see a large chunk of the Nitro Circus fan base preferring to be outdoors with their ATVs instead of stuffed into crowded theaters.
The only of the limited releases to have its weekend projections announced so far is Magnolia’s ‘2 Days in New York‘, the sequel to 2007’s ‘2 Days in Paris’. On just two screens, ‘New York’ managed to earn $27,000, which is down from the $173,641 ten-screen opening ($17,364 per screen) of its predecessor.
Top 10 (11):
1. ‘The Bourne Legacy’ (Universal) – $40,265,000
2. ‘The Campaign’ (Warner Bros.) – $27,440,000
3. ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (Warner Bros.) – $19,540,000
4. ‘Hope Springs’ (Sony) – $15,600,000
5. ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days’ (Fox) – $8,200,000
6. ‘Total Recall’ (Sony) – $8,100,000
7. ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift’ (Fox) – $6,750,000
8. ‘Ted’ (Universal) – $3,290,000
9. ‘Step Up Revolution’ (Summit) – $2,850,000
10. (Tie) ‘The Amazing Spider-Man (Sony) – $2,200,000
10. (Tie) ‘The Watch’ (Fox) – $2,200,000
JM
If Jeremy Renner was in ‘Total Recall’ and Colin Farrell was in ‘The Bourne Legacy’ would the box office have turned out different?
JM
I want Matt Damon’s future to include more Neill Blomkamp and less Bourne Rehash.
Josh Zyber
I’d suggest waiting to see how Elysium turns out before making a statement like that. Plenty of promising directors have stumbled in their sophomore efforts.
JM
Well, we don’t want Neill Blomkamp to become the next David Lynch…
If Matty D wants to phone in ‘The Bourne Conundrum’ for the money, I’m not going to begrudge his wife a new vacation home.
I wonder how much of sophomoric stumbling is related to budget increases and studio interference?
‘District 9’ was $30M. ‘Elysium’ is $120M, with all the risk of a hard R.
His executive producer at Sony is Sue Baden-Powell who shepherded the writer-directors of ‘Equilibrium,’ ‘The Box,’ and ‘The Apparition.’
While the 7-minute reel of ‘Elysium’ stole all the buzz at comic-con, that could be dismissed as underfed dork froth…
But I bet all the lemon danish in my kitchen that ‘Elysium’ plays in my den 100x better than the clusterfuck of stupidity that is ‘John Carter.’
Jon D
I wish that Total Recall’s failure would finally teach Hollywood that people are getting sick of lazy, half assed remakes. Something tells me I would have better luck searching for a unicorn.