As expected Christopher Nolan's final Batman film The Dark Knight Rises took the box office crown for the second week in a row as, in spite of the Olympics, the overall box office appears to be recovering slowly from the tragic event that took place last weekend in Colorado.  But The Dark Knight Rises, which opened with slightly higher numbers than Nolan's 2008 The Dark Knight, has now lost its lead over its predecessor.  The opening ceremony of the Olympics hurt on Friday night, but the film rebounded nicely on Saturday.  For the weekend, The Dark Knight Rises dropped 60.5%, which is actually a very good showing for a film that opened that big, but still not nearly as good as The Dark Knight's 54% drop from week one to week two. 

 

TDKR received little help from newcomers The Watch and Step Up Revolution, and the overall total of the top 12 films was off more than 20% from the same frame last year when Cowboys and Aliens opened with $36.4 million (of course last year movies didn't have to compete with the Olympic events on television).

 

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): July 27 - 29, 2012
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	The Dark Knight Rises	$64,075,000	4,404	$14,549	$289,086,000	2
2	Ice Age: Continental Drift	$13,300,000	3,869	$3,438	$114,847,000	3
3	The Watch	$13,000,000	3,168	$4,104	$13,000,000	1
4	Step Up Revolution	$11,800,000	2,567	$4,597	$11,800,000	1
5	Ted	$7,353,000	3,129	$2,350	$193,619,000	5
6	The Amazing Spider-Man	$6,800,000	3,160	$2,152	$242,053,000	4
7	Brave	$4,237,000	2,551	$1,661	$217,261,000	6
8	Magic Mike	$2,580,000	2,075	$1,243	$107,587,000	5
9	Savages	$1,753,000	1,414	$1,240	$43,899,000	4
10	Moonrise Kingdom	$1,387,000	853	$1,626	$38,396,000	10

 

The Dark Knight Rises' ten-day domestic total of $289 million is now well behind The Dark Knight's 10-day cumulative of $313.8 million (and way behind The Avengers' $373.1 million total for the same period).  Worldwide The Dark Knight Rises has already earned $537.3 million with the percentage of overseas earnings (46%) just about exactly the same as was the case in 2008 with The Dark Knight.  So at this point it appears that The Dark Knight Rises might not be able to match its predecessor's $1 billion worldwide gross, but that could change if the film improves its performance outside the U.S.  It is clear that Nolan's final Batman film will be a solid profit producer for Warner Bros., the question is just how big a hit will it be.

 

Fox's Ice Age: Continental Drift fell just 35% in its third weekend as it added $13.3 million, bringing its domestic total to $114.9 million, which is well below that of its predecessor Ice Age 3's 17-day total of $139.7 million, but Continental Drift is just plain killing it overseas where it has earned $511.4 million.

 

Ben Stiller's comedy The Watch, which cost a hefty (for a comedy at least) $68 million to produce, debuted disappointingly with just $13 million.  The opening of this star-crossed project about a group of bumbling neighborhood watch volunteers was delayed because of the death of teenager Trayvon Martin at the hands of a neighborhood watch volunteer, and the project has never managed to get its mojo back.  Its opening weekend crowd skewed male (60%) and older, with 60% of the patrons of the "R" rated comedy over 25—and the audience gave the film a very poor "C+" CinemaScore grade, which is in line with the movie's wretched 14% positive rating with the critics on Rotten Tomatoes.  Stick a fork in this one, it's done.

 

This week's other widely released newcomer, Step-Up Revolution, also posted a disappointing debut with an estimated total of $11.8 million.  But at least this urban street dance film only cost $33 million to produce, and its audience, which skewed heavily female (64%) and younger (71% under 24), gave the film a solid "B+" CinemaScore, so at least it has a chance.

 

Seth McFarlane's "R" rated comedy Ted didn’t suffer at all from the debut of The Watch.  The foul-mouthed Teddy Bear saga dipped just 26.6% as it earned an estimated $7.3 million, which brought its domestic total to $193.6 million.  It should pass the $200 million barrier sometime in the next week, though it remains well behind 2009 The Hangover, which is the gold standard for "R" rated comedies with a worldwide cumulative of nearly half a billion dollars.

 

Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man has also held up pretty well.  It slipped just 37.5% in its fourth weekend in theaters.  Marc Webb's film has now earned $242 million domestically, but it has done even better overseas where it has accumulated $412.7 million for a worldwide total of $654 million, which means that the film, which cost $230 million to produce is solidly profitable.  Still its 27-day domestic total of $242 million is well behind Spider-Man 3's $309.7 million take, and with a similar percentage of domestic versus foreign earnings, it is clear that the first of the new Spider-Man films won’t reach the numbers posted by the final film in Sam Raimi's trilogy.

 

Also continuing to perform well, but not as well as its illustrious predecessors from Hollywood's top animation studio, Pixar's Brave remained in the Top Ten for the sixth straight weekend as it slipped just 27.9% and brought its domestic total to $217.3 million.  Pixar has been slow to roll out Brave around the globe, but the film's overseas performance will be key to the $185 million production's attempt to reach profitability.

 

Check back next week to see if the summer's second big-budget science fiction film, Total Recall, will be able to dethrone The Dark Knight Rises (don't bet the farm on that one), and how Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3 fares.