Weekend Box Office: August 10-12

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Bourne Legacy - $40.2 million

2.  The Campaign - $27.4 million

3.  The Dark Knight Rises - $19.5 million

4.  Hope Springs - $15.6 million

5.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days - $8.2 million

6.  Total Recall - $8.1 million

7.  Ice Age: Continental Drift - $6.7 million 

8.  Ted - $3.2 million

9.  Step Up Revolution - $2.8 million

10.  The Watch/The Amazing Spider-man - $2.2 million

The ads insisted that "there was never just one", and audiences mostly seemed to take their word for it as The Bourne Legacy earned an estimated $40.2 million, a respectable start for the first Bourne film minus the franchise's star, Matt Damon.  They may have been swayed to show up just from being fans of the Bourne franchise itself, but it certainly helped that star Jeremy Renner has been building up a solid action resume over the past year with roles in The Avengers and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  And that Universal made the wise decision to push the release back to give The Dark Knight Rises another week to wind down.  So that was a plus, although it did fall short of The Bourne Ultimatum, the last entry starring Damon, which opened with $69 million in 2007. 

In second place was The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zack Galifinakis, which earned $27.4 million.  That's surprising, considering that the ads for this were awful (maybe that's just me), but still on the low end of the Ferrell opening weekend scale - his highest being the $47 million Talladega Nights opened with in 2006.

Falling to third place is The Dark Knight Rises, which earned $19.5 million to bring its domestic total to $390 million.  It should cross the $400 million mark this week.  Worldwide, the Batman finale has earned $835 million.

The other new release this weekend, Hope Springs, earned a soft $15.6 million.  However, the movie had a two-day head start, since it opened last Wednesday, so it's actually earned $20 million.  It should continue to have a healthy run in theaters as the counter-programming alternative to Bourne and Batman.

Next weekend is looking to be busy with the openings of The Expendables 2, Paranorman, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, and Sparkle.  So...something for everyone.