Comic book nerds can rest easy, at least for now: “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” didn’t topple “Spider-Man 2″‘s Independence Day record weekend of $88 million. But those hoping for the Summit release to be anything less than a box-office behemoth had better get out their stakes: the supernatural soap swindled teens (and their moms) out of $69 million, just from Friday through today, bringing its total to a beefy $161 million. Even though it boasts a record-breaking 4,468-screen opening, the per-site average is still a healthy $15,443. As we previously reported, “Eclipse” broke the midnight screening record AND matched its $68 million budget in just one day. It hasn’t been quite as powerful since its opening day, but we imagine it’ll pick up more than a few more ticket sales with many adults off tomorrow for a long holiday weekend. And who wouldn’t want to trade the oppressive heat for Edward’s cold embrace? (Raise your hands now.)
“New Moon,” the predecessor to “Eclipse,” brought in $143 million in its opening weekend, making this installment look a little weaker by comparison, but stop your rejoicing, “Twilight” haters: “New Moon” opened on a Friday versus a Wednesday, giving it a bit of extra punch where the weekend numbers are concerned. What makes all these numbers especially astounding is that relatively tiny budget. We imagine Summit shelled out a shocking amount for marketing, but the film was made on the cheap for a title of its box office mass. And don’t discount the licensed merchandise.
While Summit is truly celebrating the merits of capitalism for the Fourth of July, Paramount is crying into their summer ales. Their supposed-to-be-huge release, “The Last Airbender,” didn’t reach quite “Avatar”-like heights. Bad reviews and competition from “Eclipse” kept the M. Night Shyamalan film to just $40.7 million. With its source material’s popularity, this film could’ve been much bigger, and Paramount was literally banking on that, spending $280 million to make and advertise the film. A $40 million opening doesn’t sound embarrassing, but we foresee a steep drop-off thanks to negative word of mouth, even from avid fans. It should do better in its overseas openings, but we’d be surprised if Shyamalan gets a crack at “The Last Airbender 2.”
In its third week, “Toy Story 3” shows its batteries still have plenty of power, with a $30.2 million weekend, bringing its cumulative to $289 million. This brings it past both the domestic takes of “Toy Story” ($192 million) and “Toy Story 2” ($246 million). Of course, this isn’t taking into account inflation or the bumped-up prices of 3D tickets, but this is a victory for Buzz, Woody, and Co. (and John Lasseter, of course). We imagine this Friday’s opening of fellow animated kid-pleaser “Despicable Me” will take “Toy Story 3” down a notch or two, but this is still an impressive haul to continue the series. We’re still lamenting the thought of “Cars 2” and hope that this doesn’t fast-track a third film in that series.
“Grown Ups,” aka”The Expendables” of comedy, makes Columbia execs — if not critics — smile in fourth place and adds another $18.5 million to its total. This is just another fart in the face for 20th Century Fox whose “Knight and Day” only hits fifth place in its second week with $10.2 million. With a reported $112 million budget, the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz film looks lucky to make just its stars’ salaries back stateside. Meanwhile, “The Karate Kid” kicks its way past the $150 million mark with another $8 million.
The week’s biggest surprise is “Cyrus,” which makes us happy with a move into tenth place with $770,000. Making less than a million may not seem like much of a feat (and the fact that it made it into the top ten with less than a million dollars speaks for the week as a whole), but keep in mind: “Cyrus” did this on just 77 screens. To put this killer, $10,000-a-screen take in perspective, ninth-place”Shrek Forever After” did $799,000 in 957 locations.
The week’s only major limited release, Taylor Hackford’s “Love Ranch,” came in deep on the list with $49,500. Not a bad opening for an independent film (E1 is the film’s distributor), but this wasn’t a two-screen opening in New York and Los Angeles. With the Helen Mirren-Joe Pesci pairing playing on 11 screens, its per-screen average sinks to a barely passable $4,500. With the exception of 2006’s “The Good Shepherd,” the pint-sized Pesci has been absent from the screen since 1998, and this poorly reviewed film doesn’t appear to be his triumphant return. Meanwhile, Playlist-approved pic “Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky” expanded from 20 screens to 43, and it picked up an additional $134,000 in its fourth week.
1. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – $69 million ($161 mil.)
2. The Last Airbender – $40.6 million ($57 mil.)
3. Toy Story 3 – $30.2 million ($289 mil.)
4. Grown Ups – $18.5 million ($77 mil.)
5. Knight and Day – $10.2 million ($45.5 mil.)
6. The Karate Kid – $8 million ($151.5 mil.)
7. The A-Team- $3 million ($69.1 mil.)
8. Get Him to the Greek – $1.2 million ($57.4 mil.)
9. Shrek Forever After- $799,000 ($232 mil.)
10. Cyrus – $770,000 ($1.5 mil.)