Weekend Box Office: Robots Give Clooney a Beating

It’s little surprise that a big dumb popcorn movie gave the beatdown to a smart and thrilling political drama this weekend, but it’s absolutely astonishing that the three-week-old ‘Dolphin Tale’ has grossed nearly $50 million and is holding on strong in third place. At least ‘Moneyball’ and ’50/50′ are also holding their own by rounding out the Top 5, restoring some faith to humanity.

Although not an underdog like the characters of the movie, ‘Real Steel‘ can gloat about being “The #1 Movie in America” this week. It probably won’t hold that title for long when ‘Footloose’ enters the scene next weekend. The Disney/Dreamworks robo-boxing drama grossed $27.3 million. With an “A” Cinemascore rating, ‘Real Steel’ is now the biggest opener for a boxing movie and the second biggest opener for a sports film (next to ‘The Blind Side‘), according to Box Office Mojo.

Coming in at a distant second is the George Clooney-directed political drama ‘The Ides of March‘. Although the film debuted with only $10.4 million, that’s not a bad opening at all considering what ‘Ides’ was made for. Although the studio has yet to release budget info, on Thursday’s episode of ‘Charlie Rose’, Clooney quietly said that it was made for just $12 million. That’s especially not a bad opening when you realize that it’s the second highest debut out of Clooney’s four films as director, the highest being ‘Leatherheads‘ with $12.6 million.

Despite its supposedly gruesome and disturbing nature, ‘The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence‘ landed with a $54,000 opening on only 18 screens. Raise your hand if you went to see ‘Full Sequence’ this weekend and give us a report in the comments below. Is it really as bad as everyone is making it out to be? Or is it as lame and over-hyped as the original?

Aside from ‘Courageous‘ and ‘The Lion King (in 3D)‘, the other films rounding out the Top 10 are all technically proven flops. In its second weekend, ‘Dream House‘ fell to #8 and has grossed only $14.5 million on $50 million budget. ‘What’s Your Number?‘ dropped one spot to ninth and has a total gross of only $10.3 million on a $20 million budget. And Taylor Lautner’s cookie-cutter thriller ‘Abduction‘ dropped to tenth and has grossed only $23.3 million on a budget of $35 million.

Top 10

1. ‘Real Steel’ (Buena Vista) – $27,300,000

2. ‘The Ides of March’ (Sony) – $10,400,000′

3. ‘Dolphin Tale’ (WB) – $9,160,000

4. ‘Moneyball’ (Sony) – $7,500,000

5. ’50/50′ (Summit) – $5,500,000

6. ‘Courageous’ (TriStar) – $4,600,000

7. ‘The Lion King (in 3D) (Buena Vista) – $4,552,000

8. ‘Dream House’ (Universal) – $4,500,000

9. ‘What’s Your Number?’ (Fox) – $3,050,000

10. ‘Abduction’ (Lionsgate) – $2,900,000

9 comments

  1. Jane Morgan

    ‘Johnny English Reborn’ made $21M this weekend, which is totally embarrassing for ‘The Ides Of March.’

    George Clooney is probably having sad sex with a supermodel on his island this morning, to fuck away the sorrow.

    ‘Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes’ made $8M worldwide, which kicked ‘Moneyball’s ass, and killed its Oscar buzz.

    I hope Aaron Sorkin, in a fit, doesn’t break his nose writing again.

      • Jane Morgan

        After you and Josh and grammar boy gangbanged my ass, I am reformed.

        I now see inter-movie violence everywhere. I want to help spread the word. Because the world needs to hear, every week, this sacred message.

      • Jane Morgan

        You’re asking the wrong question.

        The real question is this. Why is the ‘Moneyball’ Oscar train losing steam?

        Is it the generic direction, or the lack of an iconic score?

  2. motorheadache

    There’s always a lot of criticism about the “popcorn” movie winning at the box office. I’m not so sure it’s about people preferring “dumb loud movies” as much as it is about the theatrical experience. I for one am not particularly surprised or confounded that people don’t want to pay theater ticket prices to see a political drama, no matter how good it is.

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