At last we have a new number one!
Here are estimates–very estimate-y estimates, because the projections kept shifting throughout the weekend:
1.” The Bourne Legacy” $40 million
2. “The Campaign” $27.5 millioin
3. “The Dark Knight Rises” $19.7 million
4. “Hope Springs” $14.5 million
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days $9 million
On Friday everyone was all excited, and it looked like “The Bourne Legacy” was going to do $45 million, maybe more. Instead the weekend dropped from the Friday high for reasons to be sorted out–vacation, Olympics, etc. It got a B Cinemascore from audiences, so it’s not like people came out of the theater on Friday and said, “Don’t see it, I hated it.” I think we’re going to have to wait and see how it holds up in the coming weeks before we know how to rate the success of the “Bourne” franchise without the Damon-Greengrass team.
Audiences really need a big, stupid, pure comedy and “The Campaign,” well, tried. It didn’t seem to have that big a build up, which made me wonder whether the studio felt that all audiences needed to know was “Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakias!” or whether they didn’t have much faith in it and felt the less said the better. Audiences gave it a B- Cinemascore, so maybe the latter was true.
“Hope Springs” had an okay start; with a Wednesday opening, it already has about $20 million. Weekends don’t really give the picture for this movie, though; older people don’t feel like they have to rush out to a movie he first weekend it opens and they definitely prefer to go to movies on weekdays. I know, I have retired parents and it’s about as likely that they and their friends would head out to see a movie on the first Saturday night it opens as it’s likely that that movie would be “Nitro Circus.”
Next week! We’ll see if “The Expendables 2″ still has that old action star magic, if audiences get “The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” if kids are in the mood for “ParaNorman,” and if Whitney Houston can sell “Sparkle.”
