Weekend Box Office: ‘Puss’ Trumps ‘Tower’

Surprisingly, ‘Puss in Boots’ held onto the #1 spot at the box office with another $30+ million weekend. The family-friendly ‘Shrek’ spin-off only dropped an unheard-of 3% from its opening weekend, which brings its ten-day total to more than $75 million.

Made with a budget of $85 million, ‘Tower Heist‘ underperformed with a $25.1 million second-place opening. Considering the cast and crew at hand (Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy and Brett Ratner), this Universal flick was expected to open at #1 with upward of $30 million, but failed to hit that mark.

Despite a downturn in 3D revenue over the last several months, ‘A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas‘ astonishingly opened with 95% of its revenue coming from 3D ticket sales. Although the movie only grossed a soft $13.1 million (much lower than the second [non-3D] installment’s $18 million opening), ‘Harold & Kumar’ is still expected to make back its $20 million budget in no time.

Drake Doremus’ Sundance winner ‘Like Crazy‘ opened with the best per-screen average of $16,875. On only 16 screens, the highly improvised, relationship-based drama grossed $270,000. Paramount will expand the release of ‘Like Crazy’ through the next few weeks.

Overseas, ‘The Adventures of Tintin‘ continues to win. On weekend #2, the Steven Spielberg animated film grossed another $40 million, bringing its ten-day total to more than $125 million.

Even though it dropped out of the domestic Top 10 by its third weekend, ‘The Three Musketeers‘ has gone on to earn more than $100 million worldwide.

Top 10

1. ‘Puss in Boots’ (Paramount/DreamWorks) – $32,100,000

2. ‘Tower Heist’ (Universal) – $25,100,000

3. ‘A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas’ (Warner Bros.) – $13,100,000

4. ‘Paranormal Activity 3’ (Paramount) – $8,500,000

5. ‘In Time’ (Fox) – $7,700,000

6. ‘Footloose’ (Paramount) – $4,600,000

7. ‘Real Steel’ (Buena Vista) – $3,400,000

8. ‘The Rum Diary’ (FilmDistrict) – $3,000,000

9. ‘The Ides of March’ (Sony) – $2,000,000

10. ‘Moneyball’ (Sony) – $1,900,000

3 comments

  1. Jane Morgan

    ‘Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes’ made another $8M, mostly from China, bringing its total to $469M. I predict four sequels before the next reboot.

    I also speculate that within ten years, US box office will account for less than 10% of the theatrical gross for most event pictures.

  2. Luke, I can now safely say: be prepared to be amazed by Tintin! I saw it yesterday and it blew me away. It’s a beautiful, lovingly made movie! The best use of motion capture ever.

    And, come to think about it, “Toy Story” and “Shrek” were once new intellectual properties. I’m 100% sure the United States – in which most people consider Tintin a complete unknown – will embrace the movie for what he’s worth.

    It will win you over, dazzle and amaze you. It’s Spielberg’s best film since “Catch Me If You Can”!

    • Jane Morgan

      ‘Tintin’ looks like ‘Crystal Skull’ for kids.

      It’s foreign box office is coming in lower than ‘Smurfs’ and ‘Rio.’

      I wonder if, in the US, this will be another ‘Arthur and the Invisibles’?

      In terms of motion capture, have they finally solved the “dead eyes” effect?

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