J.J. Abrams’ Spielberg-esque Super 8 outperformed expectations and easily topped the weekend box office with an estimated $37 million.  Paramount used sneak previews on Wednesday and Thursday while partnering with Twitter in a surprisingly effective and innovative marketing campaign that pushed the little known original property, which was produced for just $50 million, to the top of the chart. 

Last week’s winner X-Men: First Class slid 54.6% as it earned another $25 million.  Its drop represents the second best hold of any film in franchise history trailing only X2: X-Men United. The Hangover Part II dropped just 41%, while Kung Fu Panda 2 (-30.4%), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (-40%), and Bridesmaids (-15%) also posted strong holds. Still the overall box office was down 7% from last year when the remake of The Karate Kid ($55.6 million) and The A-Team movie ($25.6 million) debuted.

 

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): June 10 - 12, 2011
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Super 8	$37,000,000	3,379	$10,950	$38,000,000	1
2	X-Men: First Class	$25,000,000	3,692	$6,771	$98,894,000	2
3	The Hangover Part II	$18,500,000	3,675	$5,034	$216,560,000	3
4	Kung Fu Panda 2	$16,635,000	3,929	$4,234	$126,905,000	3
5	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	$10,846,000	3,433	$3,159	$208,774,000	4
6	Bridesmaids	$10,154,000	2,922	$3,475	$123,904,000	5
7	Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer	$6,267,000	2,524	$2,483	$6,267,000	1
8	Midnight in Paris	$6,146,000	944	$6,511	$14,225,000	4
9	Thor	$2,370,000	1,782	$1,330	$173,600,000	6
10	Fast Five	$1,714,000	1,329	$1,290	$205,081,000	7

 

Abrams’ reluctance to show the “monster” at the heart of the strange doings in Super 8 was the subject of much criticism in Hollywood where some analysts thought the movie, which features no real stars and a bunch of talented, but relatively unknown actors playing middle school kids, was a potential flop.  Instead Super 8 posted numbers almost identical to the science fiction sleeper hit District 9, which opened with $37.3 million in 2009. 

 

Super 8 received 12% of its gross from showings at 239 IMAX locations.  The film earned a solid “B+” CinemaScore from an audience that was predominantly male (56%) and older (71% over 25).  The film’s appeal to an older audience isn’t hard to explain, since Super 8 is basically an homage to films like ET (1982) and Close Encounters (1977) that older members of the Super 8 audience grew up with.

 

X-Men: First Class’ solid hold is all the more surprising given Super 8’s appeal to the same sort of demographic that propelled Matthew Vaughn’s reboot of the X-Men franchise to box office crown last week.  The new X-Men film, which cost $160 million to produce, has now earned $99 million domestically to go along with $124.2 million overseas for a worldwide cumulative of $222.5 million.  With its solid reviews and good word-of-mouth First Class could be positioned for a long run in the multiplexes, but it will face another behemoth targeted squarely at its demographic next week, when Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern, which should benefit from a massive TV advertising campaign, opens.

 

Meanwhile The Hangover Part II vaulted into first place for the year as it grossed an additonal $18.5 million and brought its cumulative to $216.6 million.  It has earned almost an equal amount overseas, which gives it a worldwide total of $432.1 million, which is within striking distance of the original Hangover’s final tally of $467.5 million.

 

Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides also jumped over the $200 million barrier this week as it grossed $10.4 million in its fourth weekend to bring its total to $208.8 million, which puts it in second place in the 2011 box office derby.  Of course as ICv2 has been point out over the past month the latest Pirates movie has been doing much better overseas, where it has earned $678 million, which gives it a global total of $886.8 million.  The film still has a chance to earn a billion dollars at the box office, though over 75% of that will have to come from overseas.

 

Universal’s Bridesmaids, which is in its 5th weekend at the box office, also earned $10 million.  The raunchy femme-centric comedy has now brought in nearly $124 million and qualifies as the “sleeper comedy hit” of the summer, at least so far.

 

The independently produced Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, which is based on a popular YA series, underperformed in its debut as it earned $6.2 million.  The film is targeted at tween girls and doesn’t have a lot of direct competition, which means that it might have a chance to hang around, but it will have to maintain its per-screen average as the competition for venues heats up in what looks like a very crowded summer.

 

Marvel Studios’ Thor lost nearly a thousand screens, but still managed to add an estimated $2.3 million to bring its domestic total to $173.6 million.  It appears that Kenneth Branagh’s film will end up right around $180 million domestically.

 

Next weekend will see how the most expensive gamble of the summer, Warner Bros.’ pricy attempt to create another viable DC Comics-based franchise with Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds, turns out.  The studio has pulled out all the stops in promoting and publicizing the film, and DC’s Green Lantern comics are currently at a peak of popularity.  Will the “Lantern” magic translate to the big screen and attract a mainstream audience?  Tune in next week and find out.