Weekend Box Office: Tropic Triumph

Popular with the over 25 set. 

Okay, my weekend box office prediction was pretty much wrong. I knew the smart money was on Tropic Thunder taking over first place, but I couldn’t resist being contrarian, and thought The Dark Knight might squeak out one more week at number one.

According to Variety, Tropic Thunder took in an estimated $26 million for the weekend; its total earnings, including Wednesday and Thursday, came to $37 million. Interestingly, 57% of the audience was over 25, older than expected, I would imagine. You’d think the 18-25 year olds would have been the main target (and of course all the 14 year olds who’d find a way to get into the R rated movie).

Don’t weep for second placer The Dark Knight, though. The $16.8 million it made this weekend pushed it into second place on the all-time box office list. With $471.5 million earned in just thirty days, it moved ahead of Star Wars and now sits behind Titanic.

Speaking of Star Wars, Star Wars: The Clone Wars came in at third with $15.5 million. Horror flick Mirrors, one of the few of the genre to hit screens this summer, was in fourth place with $11.1 million. Pineapple Express, last week’s number two finisher had a huge drop off, landing in fifth place with $10 million for the weekend.

Playing in only 692 theaters, Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona made $3.7 million for a per screen average of $5,361. That was good enough for number 10 on the list. I don’t know what the expectations were for the movie; maybe you would have expected a bit higher, but I suppose for August, with the last vacation sprint on, that’s all right. I wonder if it would have performed better opening in September when Allen’s films usually used to open. Oh well.

 Next week we await…Death Race? Hmm. And the inevitable question of whether Tropic Thunder will hang on or take a Pineapple Express-like dive.