Weekend Box Office: “Bruno” Is In Fashion With Audiences

Lederhosen will no doubt be a big part of back-to-school fashions. 

First, the numbers:

1. Bruno $30,426,240
2. Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs $28,500,000
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $24,200,000
4. Public Enemies $14,111,280
5. Proposal, The $10,507,000

I had no idea what to expect from “Bruno.” I believe (don’t have the history with me) that “Borat” was more of a word of mouth success than a big opener, so I didn’t know if “Bruno” would follow the same path, or whether it would ride the wave of “Borat” and the big Bruno PR blitz to a bigger opening. Not to mention that a fair number of people in the US are still uncomfortable with homosexuality, even in a satirical situation, and the fact that the movie makes fun of those people (and a lot of others as well). Looks like the latter, though, as enough people were curious about “Bruno” to push it to the top of the box office…though mostly on Friday. Variety reports that audiences dropped 39% from Friday to Saturday. I have no idea what that means either, though maybe it also has something to do with the fact that parts of the US that have had rotten weather lately finally had some decent days. Maybe everyone was sitting outside on Saturday marvelling at the fact that there was no rain.

The rest of the usual suspects hung on; “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” was the reliable family alternative for those who weren’t up to “Bruno” age yet. “Transformers 2″ continues to steadily climb up the year’s box office charts…where it may be eventually dethroned by next week’s big event: “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Can’t wait to see that money.