Weekend Box Office: June 24 -26
Sun, June 26, 2011 
Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1, Cars 2 - $68 million
2. Bad Teacher - $31 million
3. Green Lantern - $18.3 million
4. Super 8 - $12.1 million
5. Mr. Popper's Penguins - $10.3 million
6. X-Men: First Class - $6.6 million
7. The Hangover Part II - $5.8 million
8. Bridesmaids - $5.3 million
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - $4.7 million
10. Midnight in Paris - $4.4 million
Pixar strikes again, mostly. Even when hit with their first failing grade from the critics, Cars 2 raced past expectations this weekend, opening with $68 million. That would indicate that the one Pixar franchise that leaves most older audiences cranky is still plenty popular with the family crowd. However, the film did drop 9% from Friday to Saturday, when most family films tend to see a rise in ticket sales. So, it sounds like that family crowd might not be loving the movie either. Although, the franchise is so damn popular it will most likely still play well through the Transformers and Harry Potter onslaught coming in the next few weeks. And we all know that Disney will still make a gazillion in toy sales regardless of how the film does from here.
Another bad sign for 3D: less than half of Cars 2's ticket sales came from 3D screenings - only 40%. We have yet to see any of this summer's films open big in 3D. Will Michael Bay's somewhat desperate letter-writing campaign convince everyone that Transfomers really needs to be seen in 3D next week? We'll see.
It was a good weekend for Cameron Diaz, as Bad Teacher opened with $31 million to become this summer's third R-rated comedy hit. That's a nice opening, however - Teacher also had an alarming 10% drop from Friday to Saturday, and earned a paltry "C+" from Cinemascore, which doesn't bode well if the movie is hoping to have Bridesmaids-type staying power.
Green Lantern? Yikes. After an already-underwhelming $53 million opening last weekend, the summer's third superhero film dropped an ugly 66% to earn just $18.4 million. Overseas, it's only grossed $29 million. At least Warner Bros. still has Harry Potter to look forward to in a few weeks, but this one still hurts.
Super 8 had another decent weekend, with $12.1 million, and at this point is just a few days away from crossing the $100 million mark. Mr. Popper's Penguins also had a respectable 45% drop this weekend, although the movie has only grossed $39 million so far, which is low for a Jim Carrey film.
Next week...well, on Tuesday, when the 9pm screenings start (and I'll be two hours into a theatrical re-release of the extended edition of Return of the King), Transformers: Dark of the Moon arrives in theaters. They're promising that this movie will better than the rancid Revenge of the Fallen, so if it is, it should be a good holiday weekend for Autobot/Decepticon lovers everywhere
Reader Comments (3)
actually bays "desperate letter" was to projectionists to please give the audience their money's worth and play the film right...you know kinda like Malicks..oh but that's different.
Seems everywhere I go on the net someone has it out for this franchise and director. Now that's desperate.
Bay wrote two letters. One to projectionists and one to fans.
Don't know what is wrong what is rite but i know that every one has there own point of view and same goes to this one bwtsot bwtsot - Moncler Rockar.