Box-Office Report - Week of 10 June 2011

The week of June 10, 2011 was pretty quiet, except for one major event, which in fact became the only big new entry in the top 10, "Super 8". The big bucks failed to turn in this week-end, with mostly the old releases contributing to the total revenue. Let's check out the top 10 :

• Despite having a publicity campaign as loud and gigantic as the "Cloverfield" monster , J.J. Abrams' latest flick, "Super 8" performed underwhelmingly at the box-office, earning a meek $37M for its ambitions over the last three days. Add to that an extra $1M from Thursday's early screenings and you get a total of $38 that will leave the folks at Paramount scratching their heads. Still, it's #1 this week, so that has to count for something. The mystery of the creature and the nostalgic look back to our childhood days (as well as some older Spielberg movies) failed to move audiences into the theaters. Still, all is not lost, as is evident for the next movie.

• At #2, "X-Men: First Class", drops abruptly by more than half of its $56M opening. Scoring only $25M this week-end, the franchise reboot directed by Matthew Vaughn ("Kick-Ass") managed to pull itself to a total of $98.9M, reaching the $100M quickly enough. So, despite a weaker opening than expected, the movie seems to have high hopes of reaching $200M, which would at least bring it closer to the high grossers in the X-Men series, like "X2" or "The Last Stand". Fingers crossed for the mutants.

• Taking it down a notch is "The Hangover: Part II", this week at #3. The movie that caused quite a ruckus in theaters when it opened with $114M in four days, has now slowed down considerably, with just $18M over the week-end, which brings its total to $217M. The first movie grossed $277M, but opened with a far less impressive $44M. It's interesting because while the original Wolfpack adventure was helped a lot by enthusiastic reviews and ultra-positive word-of-mouth, the second one doesn't have all that to back it up. So, it could end up falling abruptly and finally grossing more than the first one's total cume, but not by a lot. Normally, if it keeps up its current business numbers, it could go past $300M in a couple of weeks. Time will tell.

• At #4 the kung fu of the panda is losing its mojo as "Kung Fu Panda 2" continues to fall. Grossing almost $17M this week-end, and a total of $127M over the last 17 days, the animated feature looks to gross much less than the $215M of the first movie. Considering that over the last 7 days it made only $27M, it could be argued that the next few weeks will not be kind to the sequel. I assume it will finish somewhere around $180-185M, if it keeps it up like this.

• Johnny Depp's latest pirate adventure lands at #5 this week. "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" earned $10.8M in the last three days, losing money like a ship full of cannonball holes ($18M last week-end). Its total now at $209M, the movie must look to the international market to cover its losses and turn a profit before its release on DVD and Blu-Ray (Budget: $250M). If it continues to drop like this, it will exit the top 10 much sooner than anticipated. The way it looks now, it's going to be the weakest grosser of the Pirates series.

• The female counterpart to "The Hangover" crashes the party at #6. The Judd Apatow-produced comedy "Bridesmaids" dropped only $2M from last week-end. So, with a round $10M grossed over the last three days, the total has now reached $124M, which considering the movie was made on a $32M budget, is nothing but good news, especially for actress/writer Kristen Wiig whose star-status just exploded. The movie seems to be holding out well, unlike the Pirates sequel, which means it could easily float above the Johnny Depp starrer in the next weeks, although it's really far from the $200M mark. It's interesting how the comedy managed to make most of its money during the week-end. Out of the $17M it grossed in the last 7 days, $10M were grossed in the week-end timeframe. Most of the time it's the other way around. Call this the week-end magic. "Bridesmaids" could end up somewhere around $155-160M, if it can keep up the pace.

• At #7, is a new entry, and a surprise entry at that. "Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer" opened with an unimpressive, but unexpected, $6M over its first three days. The movie, based on a children's book series, opened to harsh reviews which added up to a 13% Tomatometer on Rottentomatoes.com. I doubt the movie will be around for very long, but it will earn its first $10M easily.

• Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" maintains the same position as last week (#8). Opening in even more theaters, which qualifies it for a wide release, finally, the movie actually increased its earnings from $2M last week to $6M in the last three days, increasing its 17-day total to $14M. The movie was made on a $30M budget, which it might end up recovering eventually.

• The comic-book adaptation "Thor" falls hard from last week's #6 to #9 this week. Earning only $2M this week-end ($4M last week) , the movie's total has now reached $174M. Its days of glory have passed and the Marvel Studios production will probably exit the top 10 when I'll write next week's box-office report. The movie had a decent domestic run that lasted for 37 days, but I'm pretty sure these are not the impressive numbers the studios expected (Budget: $150M).

• Another movie that celebrates its last days in the top 10 is "Fast Five" at #10. The Vin Diesel starrer has grossed $1.7M in the last three days and accumulated $205M in its 44 days in the top 10, making this the best grossing movie in the Fast & Furious franchise. The original "The Fast and the Furious" grossed $144M in 2001. Its 2003 sequel, "2 Fast 2 Furious", starring only Paul Walker earned $127M. When the franchise came back in 2006 with a new director (Justin Lin) and missing both Walker and Diesel, its box-office collapsed to a disappointing $62M, but the new-found director was called back and by reuniting the original cast, 2009's "Fast & Furious" brough the series back to full speed with a record $155M. Now, Justin Lin and the entire cast from all four movies made "Fast Five" not only the biggest grosser of the series ($205M), but also the best reviewed movie in the series. A 6th movie is already underway, preparing for a 2013 release. No details are known at this time.

The movies that exited the Top 10 are : two dueling romantic comedies "Jumping the Broom" and "Something Borrowed". You can read my older posts in the Box-Office Report series to track the progress of these two.

Here is the Top 10 for the week of 10 June 2011 :

1. Super 8
Weekend : 37M
Total : $38M

2. X-Men: First Class
Weekend : $25M
Total : $98.9M

3.The Hangover Part II
Weekend : $18.5M  
Total : $217M

4. Kung Fu Panda 2
Weekend : $16.6M   
Total : $127M

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Weekend : $10.8M  
Total : $209M

6. Bridesmaids
Weekend : $10M  
Total : $124M

7. Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer
Weekend : $6M    
Total : $6M

8. Midnight in Paris
Weekend : $6M    
Total : $14M

9. Thor
Weekend : $2M
Total : $174M

10. Fast Five
Weekend : 1.7M  
Total : $205M