Ted celebrates winning the box office.
Here’s how the numbers are shaping up:
1. Ted (Universal) NEW [3,239 Theaters] R
Friday $20.5M, Saturday $18.0M, Weekend $52.5M
2. Magic Mike (Warner Bros) NEW [2,930 Theaters] R
Friday $18.0M, Saturday $10.7M, Weekend $38.0M
3. Brave 3D (Pixar/Disney) Week 2 [4,164 Theaters] PG
Friday $10.5M, Saturday $13.4M, Weekend $35.5M (-47%), Cume $132.2M
4. Madea’s Witness Prot (Tyler Perry/Lionsgate) NEW [2,161 Theaters] PG13
Friday $10.2M, Saturday $9.6M, Weekend $27.0M
5. Madagascar 3 3D (DWA/Par) Week 4 [3,715 Theaters] PG
Friday $4.2M, Saturday $5.1M, Weekend $12.5M, Cume $180.7M
Hey, remember that “GI Joe: Retaliation” was supposed to open this weekend? I have a feeling everyone involved in that is thinking, “We came thisclose to getting hammered by a talking teddy bear.” I mean, in the battle of the toys I don’t think GI Joe would have outdone Ted.
The interesting thing, though, is that after “GI Joe” pulled out of the weekend on short notice, we were left with a rare summer weekend that didn’t feature a big action movie, or scifi movie, or superhero movie, or animated movie. No, we were left with a rare weekend that featured a comedy, a coming of age story, and a family drama.
“Ted,” our R-rated comedy won the weekend, giving Seth MacFarlane a big success in his first attempt at a feature film. Why the success? I think the trailer and commercials sold it well, especially to MacFarlane’s core “Family Guy” audience. I think that people just needed a break from all the action and blockbusteriness and just wanted a night out where they could laugh.
“Magic Mike” aimed its promotions directly at women and succeeded. They said, “This one’s for the ladies” and the ladies said, “It’s about frickin’ time!!” Women’s movie year is usually like this: “Here, we’ve got a weepy romantic drama where someone is sick or something, a dumb romantic comedy where they go to big shoe stores ’cause we know you girls like that, and then in August we’ve got this movie based on some book you gals read in your book. Otherwise just let your husband or boyfriend take you to see something, maybe you’ll even like it.” So “Magic Mike” offered women a movie to go see with their friends that blatantly centered on semi-naked good looking men with a story thrown in that was neither weepy nor a dimwitted comedy. So it dared to be different and look, it worked. It actually got excellent reviews, but surprisingly just a B Cinemascore. Maybe women expected more stripping?
“People Like Us,” the directorial debut of Alex Kurtzman, who’s best known for writing sci-fi action blockbusters with Roberto Orci, had a tough weekend. Which shouldn’t have been a surprise because it makes no sense whatsoever to open a small, personal family drama on a weekend at the height of summer.
Interesting note: box office was super hot on Friday, then “Magic Mike” and “Ted” had a big drop on Saturday. I think we have to attribute at least some of that to the tremendously bad weather that swept through various parts of the country on Saturday morning.
Next week! On Thursday we have the Katy Perry concert movie and on Friday the much hyped “Savages” from Oliver Stone. Oh, and on Tuesday “The Amazing Spider-Man” opens in over 4000 theaters.
