Weekend Box Office: ‘Potter’ Drastically Drops While ‘Cap’ Over-Performs

After last week’s record-setting opening, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’ dropped more than 71% in attendance. Over the entire weekend, ‘Potter’ barely nabbed $5 million more than what it earned from its initial midnight openings alone. Even so, with another $48 million in its second weekend, the ‘Potter’ finale has now grossed over $274 million domestically and is on track to become the franchise’s biggest winner.

The latest Marvel superhero movie leading up to next summer’s ‘The Avengers’, ‘Captain America: The First Avenger‘ finished more than $5 million above expectations, with $65.8 million. Surprisingly, ‘Cap’ scored more in its first weekend than other summer superhero flicks ‘Thor‘, ‘X-Men: First Class‘ or ‘Green Lantern‘. But the attached teasers for both ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ and ‘The Avengers’ make it look like ‘Cap’ may not hold that record for long.

Like I said in my review, ‘Captain America’ plays out unlike other Marvel adaptations. Not only does it have a little something for everyone, it’s easily the best-written of them all to date.

Underperforming this weekend was the R-rated romantic comedy ‘Friends with Benefits‘. Despite being the stronger and funnier of the two, ‘Friends’ opened even softer than January’s similar ‘No Strings Attached‘. Check out my review to find exactly why ‘Friends with Benefits’ is worthy of your time and money.

Limited releases ‘Another Earth‘ and ‘A Little Help‘ opened on opposite ends of the spectrum. ‘Another Earth’ featured a strong $19,600 per-screen average (on 4 screens), while ‘A Little Help’ only wrangled $2,000 per screen (on 24 screens).

Top 10:

1. ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ (Paramount) – $65,827,000

2. ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2’ (Warner Bros.) – $48,065,000

3. ‘Friends with Benefits’ (Screen Gems) – $18,500,000

4. ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ (Paramount/DreamWorks) – $12,000,000

5. ‘Horrible Bosses’ (Warner Bros./New Line) – $11,720,000

6. ‘Zookeeper’ (Sony) – $8,700,000

7. ‘Cars 2’ (Buena Vista) – $5,726,000

8. ‘Winnie the Pooh’ (Buena Vista) – $5,141,000

9. ‘Bad Teacher’ (Sony) – $2,600,000

10. Midnight in Paris (Sony Pictures Classics) – $1,899,000

8 comments

  1. Jane Morgan

    ‘Captain America’ couldn’t get it up worldwide.

    ‘Harry Potter 7.2’ was, again, #1 worldwide, with $169M.

    ‘Transformers 3’ came in second, at $74M.

    ‘Captain America’ only made $3M in foreign markets, which means it opened in 3rd place, with a weak-ass $69M.

    But the big news this weekend was ‘Midnight in Paris,’ which, in its 10th weekend, was the only movie to make more box office than its previous weekend. It actually went up. 1.2%.

    Woody Allen Sexy Dance!

    La La La!

    • Well, ‘Captain America’ opened in very few markets. None of the major foreign countries have received the movie. Harry Potter was a worldwide release. Got to take that into account.

      • I don’t think anyone at the studio expects a movie called “Captain America” to play well in too many foreign markets about now. I can’t wait to see how it does in the Middle East. 🙂

        • True. And, as stated before, he’s a pretty unknown character. In Europe, only geeks and nerds know the comics.

          Spider-Man, Batman, Superman (etc) are far more famous. It actually baffled me how well “Iron Man” did, because he’s also a virtual unknown. Of course, Robert Downey Jr. helped a big part in that movie’s foreign box office success. The man is good.

      • Jane Morgan

        Comic book movies haven’t been making much box office in foreign markets this year.

        $266M – Thor
        $203M – X-Men FC
        $129M – Green Hornet
        $33M – Green Lantern

        Compared to a universal crowd-pleaser like Transformers 3, at $557M.

        Will Captain America suck cash like a Thor, or go home crying like Green Lantern?

  2. I am actually really sad Winnie The Pooh is not doing better. Its REALLY good, and its really refreashing to see the classic animation and story-telling. In my opinion, it was just released at a REALLY bad time in the US, with not enough marketing. Pitty, it probably means that we won’t see other movies in this style.

    • EM

      When Winnie and Deathly Hallows: Part 2 came out, I wanted to see both but was more excited about Winnie. Due to logistical considerations—including the lesser number of screens Winnie has been being exhibited on locally—I saw the Harry Potter finale almost right away but still haven’t seen the pooh-bear’s movie. I hope to next week. Around here, the movie is now being shown only once a day in the afternoon, and so I’m guessing it’ll be gone next weekend.

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