I wasn’t the only one who underestimated the draw of this weekend’s movies. The studios were way off too. Pixar’s ‘Brave’ was predicted to hold onto the #1 spot, but two openers gave it a run for its money, and collectively earned over $30 million more than they were expected to.
The most impressive opening of the weekend was that for ‘Ted‘. Expected to finish in third place with $28.3 million, Seth MacFarlane’s live-action directorial debut landed the top spot with a shocking $54.1 million. Note that this is the best opening for an original R-rated comedy. Suck on that, ‘The Hangover‘.
Is Channing Tatum becoming box office gold? ‘Magic Mike‘ is Tatum’s third movie of 2012 to open at or above $36 million. Originally estimated to only make $31.5 million, this film also performed better than the studio thought. The Steven Soderbergh-directed drama earned $39.1 million. With Tatum and Matthew McConaughey playing male strippers, go figure, the audiences were 73% comprised of females.
Pixar’s ‘Brave‘ slipped 48.7% and landed in the #3 spot. Many are quick to point out the steep decline, but it’s worth noting that the movie’s 10-day total is up $14.5 million from last summer’s ‘Cars 2‘. Analysts still expect ‘Brave’ to finish domestically northward of $200 million. After only 10 days, it’s currently sitting at $131.6 from stateside revenue.
‘Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection‘ finished in fourth place. Considering that Perry’s last film, the Madea-less ‘Good Deeds’, was a flop, the Madea character might be the only reason for Perry’s success. Of Perry’s 13 films, the $26.3 million opening for ‘Witness Protection’ is his fourth best.
Four-week-old ‘Madagascar 3‘ closed out the Top 5 with another $11.8 million. Domestically, this three-quel has grossed $180 million.
Just like last week’s ‘Seeking a Friend for the End of the World’, the sad opener of the week is the Chris Pine/Elizabeth Banks vehicle ‘People Like Us‘. On 2,055 screens, the drama only managed to bring in $4.3 million, barely enough to knock ‘The Avengers’ out of the Top 10 and fill the #10 spot. If the weekend actuals are off by less than $100,000, ‘People Like Us’ could slip out of the Top 10 altogether. Sadly, its per-screen average was only $2,095.
The highest per-screen average of the week ($42,250) went to Sundance title ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild‘. On just four screens, this drama earned $169,000. On three screens, Jonathan Demme’s documentary ‘Neil Young Journeys‘ didn’t perform so strongly. The $13,300 opening made for a $4,433 per-screen average.
Top 10:
1. ‘Ted’ (Universal) – $54,100,000
2. ‘Magic Mike’ (Warner Bros.) – $39,155,000
3. ‘Brave’ (Buena Vista) – $34,011,000
4. ‘Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection’ (Lionsgate) – $26,350,000
5. ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’ (Paramount/DreamWorks) – $11,815,000
6. ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’ (Fox) – $6,000,000
7. ‘Prometheus’ (Fox) – $4,925,000
8. ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ (Focus) – $4,873,000
9. ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ (Universal) – $4,405,000
10. ‘People Like Us’ (Buena Vista) – $4,306,000
William Henley
You know, I have to wonder if half the people who saw Magic Mike even knew what the movie was about. I was at the theater Friday night to see Men In Black 3, and we noticed that there was a movie opening that had young girls – I mean like 6-11 years of age – wrapped down the hall, around the corner, all the way into the lobby, waiting to get in. Must have been at least 30 little girls, if not more, lined up to see this movie. I thought it was Ice Age at first, then I remember that opens July 13th. I finally asked them what they were there to see, and they said Magic Mike. I hadn’t heard of it, and thought maybe it was some talking animal movie or something. I then got home, read the synopsis online, saw the rating, and pretty much started a firestorm debate on Facebook about unfit parenting.
So yeah, Friday, I saw MIB3 and Saturday I saw Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. I thorougly enjoyed both, and am going to go out and say that Abe was probably the best movie I have seen all year. I REALLY enjoyed it!
Shannon Nutt
I thought TED was the most entertaining movie I’ve seen so far this summer (and yes, I’ve seen AVENGERS). It was just a delight. I know lots of people can’t stand Seth, but I find his sense of humor to be pretty close to my own. I realized watching TED that he’s VERY MUCH an American version of the late Douglas Adams. Raunchier to be sure, but that same kind of humor.
Chaz Dumbaugh
TED was awesome from start to finish it reminded me of a much more mature version of Elf, just a great hilarious comedy all rolled into a smart fantasy adult family type hybrid, I laughed probably the whole time and almost had tears near the end, Seth is even great at real emotions and I pretty much forgot TED was even CG once the movie got going, Walberg was fantastic, its probably up there with Avengers as the best movie I’ve seen this year.
I love Seth for the constant 80s references, you know he’s targeting his humor at us 30 somethings and the whole beginning with the kids opening their presents was awesome, the indy poster, the love of Flash Gordon, the movie on top of being great was a throwback to my own childhood pretty much, that will earn it a place on my shelf for constant viewing 🙂
Thulsadoom
I have to admit, I’m probably one of the few people who thinks TED (based on the trailers) looks a bit pathetic. The general idea sounded funny but the execution looks like it was written for kids who think scenes where people smoke pot are instantly hilarious because, well, you know, they’re smoking pot, which, you know, means they say and do stupid things. So it’s hilarious. ha-ha.
I could be wrong, I’ll probably give it a rental to give it a chance, but I’m sure as hell not going to spend my money seeing it at the cinema. 😉
Shannon Nutt
You’re wrong…this is NOT Pineapple Express (which I hated) or anything like an Apatow movie (most of which I dislike) or a Kevin Smith film (hit or miss with me). There ARE some scenes with drug use, but not with the kind of humor you’re thinking about I’m sure.
Chaz Dumbaugh
Yeah have to agree with Shannon on this one, yes there are some drug scenes but they arent over the top or there just to make you laugh because they think they are supposed to, its more to deal with the fact that both of them have become lazy and cant grow up, otherwise it isnt used much at all, the comedy is WAY funnier than that with everything else in the movie, those scenes are few and far between
Thulsadoom
Might give it a go then. 😉 Like Shannon, I’m not a fan of Apatow movies and I think most Kevin Smith movies have one or two good ideas ruined by his annoying scripts and indulgences.