Box-Office Report - Week of 24 June 2011

The week of 24 June, 2011, saw two new releases make their way into the top 10, "Cars 2" and "Bad Teacher". The movies that exited the top 10 this week are : "Kung Fu Panda 2" and "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer". Read on to see how the other movies, as well as the new releases, performed this week-end (click on each movie title to read more about them).

• #1 - CARS 2 
• This Weekend : $68M
• Previous Weekend : N/A
• Domestic Total : $68M
• Foreign Total :  $42M
• Observations : Not as impressive as previous Pixar openings. Fifth highest-grossing opening week-end. The first four were "Toy Story 3" ($110M), "The Incredibles" ($70.5M), "Finding Nemo" ($70M), "Up" ($68M). Scathing reviews might indicate the possibility of a lukewarm audience reception in the following weeks. Pixar's least impressive performance, by all accounts.
• Expectations : It still has a chance of grossing up to $200M in its domestic run, if word-of-mouth proves to be more positive than the critical reception. Next week's box-office report will prove critical to the movie's financial success.

• #2 - BAD TEACHER
• This Weekend : $31M
• Previous Weekend : N/A
• Domestic Total : $31M
• Foreign Total : $18M
• Observations : Not the most impressive debut for the R-rated comedy, but certainly acceptable given the age restriction. The only raunchy R comedy that made it big at the box-office is "The Hangover Part II", thanks to its franchise status. Not a big deal, though, as it was made on a modest $19M budget. It's already registering a profit.
• Expectations : It will probably go as far as $100M, but not necessarily above that limit.

• #3 - GREEN LANTERN
• This Weekend : $18M
• Previous Weekend : $52.7M (opening)
• Domestic Total : $89.3M
• Foreign Total :  $29M
• Observations : The comic-book adaptation is not pulling in as much money as Warner Brothers hoped it would. The abrupt drop in week-end grosses proves that. "Thor" had a similar drop, but it grossed about $68M in its opening week-end, which is much better than "Green Lantern". Red flags are going off all over the place, especially since the movie cost $300M to make, which it most certainly will not recover domestically. Foreign grosses aren't helping much either.
• Expectations : Chances for the movie to hit $200M are slim. Since "Thor" finished at around $169M, the green costumed superhero can expect a little less, perhaps somewhere between $150-160M.

• #4 - SUPER 8
• This Weekend : $12M
• Previous Weekend : $21M
• Domestic Total : $95M
• Foreign Total  :  $36M
• Observations : Not big business, but high enough to clear its $45M budget and make a profit. The drops from one week to the other are constantly abrupt, which means the movie will leave the top 10 rapidly enough in the following weeks, with the help of mounting competition.
• Expectations : It should finish somewhere around $150M, easy.

• #5 - MR. POPPER'S PENGUING
• This Weekend : 10M
• Previous Weekend : $18M (opening)
• Domestic Total : $39M
• Foreign Total : $4M
• Observations : Once again, I'll say it, not Jim Carrey's best. I couldn't exactly say the movie is underperforming, because frankly, there wasn't much hope to begin with. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse.
• Expectations : Can't expect too much. It might hold on for as far as $70-75M, which is pretty good. At least it will have recovered its $55M budget.

• #6 - X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
• This Weekend : $6.6M
• Previous Weekend : $11.5M
• Domestic Total : $133M
• Foreign Total :  $184M
• Observations : While domestically it's not doing too well, falling below the standards of previous X-Men installments, the foreign market is giving the movie a hefty boost. "Green Lantern" will probably finish ahead of this franchise reboot in the US, but the foreign tally won't even come close. Being such a long-running franchise (which includes animated series), the X-Men have much more popularity outside the US than the largely unknown DC comics superhero, and it shows.
• Expectations : It has definitely lost its momentum, but it can still crawl its way to $150M. Not the best domestic run in the franchise, but maybe the sequel can do better. Yes, there will definitely be a sequel.

• #7 - THE HANGOVER PART II
• This Weekend : $5.8M
• Previous Weekend : $9.6M
• Domestic Total : $244M
• Foreign Total :  $283M
• Observations : It's already the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in movie history. No matter what happens next, they have taken down one box-office record after another with drunken glee. It has slowed down considerably, but given its global cume of $527M, I guess they don't really care anymore.
• Expectations : The movie will probably halt somewhere around $260-265M, which ironically is less than the $277M grossed by the first movie. Negative reviews and unenthusiastic word-of-mouth led to this. Still, the first one only grossed $190M in foreign theaters, so at least people outside the US enjoyed the sequel more.

• #8 - BRIDESMAIDS
• This Weekend : $5M
• Previous Weekend : $7M
• Domestic Total : $147M
• Foreign Total : $21M
• Observations : Still going, the female couterpart to "The Hangover" has earned a decent amount of money for its $32M budget. Foreign grosses don't look that good, but it shouldn't really worry them. In the case of a sequel, results will improve greatly, I'm sure.
• Expectations : It will probably go as far as $160-165M. 

• #9 - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES
• This Weekend : $4.7M
• Previous Weekend : $6M
• Domestic Total : $229M
• Foreign Total : $756M
• Observations : Domestically, the movie is the worst grosser of the franchise, as all of the three installments that preceded "On Stranger Tides" grossed between $300M and $400M. Still, the foreign box-office is doing much better, putting the global cume to almost a billion dollars, which makes this third in the four-movie series, above "The Curse of the Black Pearl" which only managed $650M globally. The others went way above one billion.
• Expectations : It will manage to land somewhere between $240M and $250M.

• #10 - MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
• This Weekend : $4M
  
• Previous Weekend : $5M
• Domestic Total : $28.6M
• Foreign Total : $23M
• Observations : Woody Allen's Cannes-approved rom-com is still doing well two weeks after it got its wide release. There's not a lot of business it can do, but it still managed to recuperate its $30M budget and is still holding steady.
• Expectations : Might not really make it in the top 10 next week, but it will probably finish between $35M and $40M, one small step at a time.