Sly Stallone’s The Expendables 2 easily topped the weekend box office with an estimated total of $28.8 million. But that was six million below what the first Expendables film earned in August of 2010. Other newcomers including the stop-motion animated feature ParaNorman also opened on the low side of expectations, but there was still more than enough juice left in the box office to allow the top 12 films to post a 17% gain over the same weekend last year when The Help made it to #1 in its second weekend in theaters.
The Expendables 2 should be around for a while. The film earned a solid "A-" CinemaScore from an audience that was even older than that of the original film with 65% of the debut weekend crowd over 25 versus just 60% for the first Expendables movie. For the sequel Stallone was able to pry even more geriatric action stars away from their bingo tables and Metamucil-swilling contests as Chuck Norris, and Jean-Claude Van Damme joined the cast and Arnold Schwarzenegger took a much bigger role.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): August 17-19, 2012 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | The Expendables 2 | $28,750,000 | 3,316 | $8,670 | $28,750,000 | 1 |
| 2 | The Bourne Legacy | $17,020,000 | 3,753 | $4,535 | $69,581,000 | 2 |
| 3 | ParaNorman | $14,008,000 | 3,429 | $4,085 | $14,008,000 | 1 |
| 4 | The Campaign | $13,385,000 | 3,255 | $4,112 | $51,694,000 | 2 |
| 5 | Sparkle | $12,000,000 | 2,244 | $5,348 | $12,000,000 | 1 |
| 6 | The Dark Knight Rises | $11,140,000 | 3,157 | $3,529 | $409,916,000 | 5 |
| 7 | The Odd Life of Timothy Green | $10,909,000 | 2,598 | $4,199 | $15,187,000 | 1 |
| 8 | Hope Springs | $9,100,000 | 2,361 | $3,854 | $35,051,000 | 2 |
| 9 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days | $3,850,000 | 2,737 | $1,407 | $38,762,000 | 3 |
| 10 | Total Recall | $3,500,000 | 2,434 | $1,438 | $51,782,000 | 3 |
Last week’s winner The Bourne Legacy dropped 55.4% in its second frame, which is about "average-to-good" for a heavily-hyped action film these days. Depending on how it fares over the next few weeks, it appears quite possible that this Bourne reboot will at least break the $100 million mark domestically, though it will have to do well overseas to turn a profit.
ParaNorman, the new stop-motion feature from Laika Studios (Coraline), opened somewhat weaker than Coraline ($16.8 million). This saga of an outsider kid who has to save his town from a zombie plague, earned a borderline good "B+" CinemaScore, though it did post an 18% jump from Friday to Saturday, which in these days of social media typically indicates good word of mouth.
The Campaign, which opened at #2 last week, slipped to #4 with an estimated total of $13.4 million, a 49.7% drop, which is better than most "R" rated comedies have managed so far in 2012.
Sparkle, a remake of a 1976 film, debuted in the fifth spot with an estimated $12 million, which is certainly at the low end of expectations for this movie, which is Whitney Houston’s last. But since Sparkle received an "A" CinemaScore and cost only $14 million to produce, it will almost certainly make money from its older (62% over the age of 35) and predominantly female (74%) audience.
The Dark Knight Rises dropped 41.3% in its fifth frame as it earned an estimated $11.1 million and brought its domestic total to nearly $410 million as it pushed past The Hunger Games ($407 million) this weekend to become the second-highest grossing film of the year. Forget about catching The Avengers, but with continued strong performance from overseas, TDKR has a solid chance of passing the billion dollar mark worldwide.
Disney’s The Odd Life of Timothy Green debuted at #7, but this modest film, which opened on Wednesday, has now earned over $15 million, and it cost just $25 million to produce. Opening weekend audiences gave the film a solid "A-" CinemaScore, so it could turn out to be quite profitable.
Sony’s Total Recall, which cost $125 million to produce, slipped to #10 during its third weekend in theaters. It appears unlikely to reach even $70 million domestically, so it will have to do well in the crowded post-Olympics foreign market to break even.
The comic book-based movie you have never heard of, Chicken With Plums, a live-action film co-directed by Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) and based on her graphic novel, opened in just two theaters and did OK. Check the schedule of your local arthouse cinema to see whether you will get a chance to view this brilliant evocation of Iranian middle class life in the 1950s.
Check back next week to see if Universal’s The Apparition or Sony’s Premium Rush, the bike messenger thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be able to dethrone The Expendables 2.
