Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno topped the weekend box office with an estimated total of $30.4 million, but Heroes’ Hayden Panettiere couldn’t save I Love You Beth Cooper, which debuted in the dumpster, and the overall box office was down 5% from last year when Hellboy II opened, and 21% from 2007, when Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix bowed.
The R-Rated Bruno earned a solid $11,040 per location, but there are plenty of storm clouds on this mockumentary’s horizon. The squirm-inducing Austrian fashionista had a stellar $14.4 million debut on Friday, but dropped off a scary 39% on Saturday. Don’t be surprised if final box office figures, which will be released tomorrow, put Bruno under the $30 million mark. Though Bruno has found some favor with the critics (70% favorable on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences, which were 56% male and 54% over 25, gave the film a lousy CinemaScore grade of “C.”
Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): July 10-12, 2009
|
Rank |
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./Screen |
|
1 |
Bruno |
$30,426,000 |
2,756 |
$11,040 |
|
2 |
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs |
$28,500,000 |
4,102 |
$6,948 |
|
3 |
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen |
$24,200,000 |
4,293 |
$5,637 |
|
4 |
Public Enemies |
$14,111,000 |
3,336 |
$4,230 |
|
5 |
The Proposal |
$10,507,000 |
3,158 |
$3,327 |
|
6 |
The Hangover |
$9,930,000 |
3,002 |
$3,308 |
|
7 |
I Love You Beth Cooper |
$5,000,000 |
1,858 |
$2,691 |
|
8 |
Up |
$4,656,000 |
2,201 |
$2,115 |
|
9 |
My Sister's Keeper |
$4,180,000 |
2,444 |
$1,710 |
|
10 |
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 |
$1,600,000 |
1,116 |
$1,434 |
The overall weekend total would have been a lot worse save for strong performances by holdover moves, which are limiting the damage from the strike-caused lack of major new releases. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs dropped just 32% and finished a very strong second with an estimated $28.5 million. It now appears that the third Ice Age film will parlay its more expensive 3-D showings into a box office total that meets or exceeds the $195 million earned by its predecessor.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen continued to pad its lead as the #1 film of the year by adding an estimated $24.2 million and bringing its cumulative to $339.2 million. Michael Mann’s Pubic Enemies declined just 44% in its second weekend as it pulled in $14.1 million and finished in fourth place. Public Enemies’ 44% drop is certainly not bad for a sophomore session, but it was the steepest fall-off among the top 12 films, which demonstrates just how potent the top holdovers were. The Hangover, which finished sixth, dipped just 12%, while The Proposal, which came in fifth, fell only 18%. In its seventh weekend in theaters, Pixar’s Up (down just 28.6%) finished at #8, just behind I Love You Beth Cooper, while
The live action Blood: The Last Vampire, which is based on the Production I.G. anime, debuted in 20 theaters and earned $103,000 for a solid, but hardly spectacular $5,150 average.
The overall box office total should get a major boost next week with the debut of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.