The Expendables 2 extended its box office reign for a second weekend with an estimated total of $13.5 million, but it received little help from newcomers with the Joseph Gordon-Levitt bicycle messenger thriller Premium Rush finishing in seventh place, while the indie action comedy Hit and Run debuted at number ten. The total of the top 12 movies was up 10% from the same dismal movie-going weekend last year when The Help topped the charts with $14.5 million, but down 11% from 2010 when The Takers won with $20.5 million.
The Bourne Legacy finished second for the second week in a row with an estimated $9.3 million. It has now earned $85.5 million domestically and should make it over the $100 million mark. But the success of this rebooting of the franchise with Jeremy Renner remains in doubt pending the film’s overseas launch into a very competitive market made up of films that were held back this summer to avoid competing with first the European Football Championships and then with the Olympics.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): August 24-26, 2012 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | The Expendables 2 | $13,500,000 | 3,355 | $4,024 | $52,314,000 | 2 |
| 2 | The Bourne Legacy | $9,300,000 | 3,654 | $2,545 | $85,500,000 | 3 |
| 3 | ParaNorman | $8,546,000 | 3,455 | $2,474 | $28,274,000 | 2 |
| 4 | The Campaign | $7,440,000 | 3,302 | $2,253 | $64,543,000 | 3 |
| 5 | The Dark Knight Rises | $7,150,000 | 2,606 | $2,744 | $422,188,000 | 6 |
| 6 | The Odd Life of Timothy Green | $7,125,000 | 2,598 | $2,742 | $27,080,000 | 2 |
| 7 | Premium Rush | $6,300,000 | 2,255 | $2,794 | $6,300,000 | 1 |
| 8 | 2016 Obama's America | $6,238,000 | 1,091 | $5,718 | $9,075,000 | 7 |
| 9 | Hope Springs | $6,000,000 | 2,402 | $2,498 | $45,000,000 | 3 |
| 10 | Hit and Run | $4,675,000 | 2,870 | $1,629 | $5,868,000 | 1 |
Paranorman, the stop-motion animated feature from Laika Studios, dropped 39% in its second weekend and finished third with an estimated $8.5 million, which brings its ten-day total to $28.2 million.
The broad "R" rated political comedy The Campaign dropped just 43% in its third weekend as it finished fourth with $7.4 million, which was just ahead of The Dark Knight Rises, which finished fifth in its sixth weekend, earning $7.1 million and bringing its domestic total to $422.2 million. Overseas Christopher Nolan’s final Batman movie has earned even more. With a global total of $910 million, the film is closing in the billion dollar mark and could well best The Dark Knight’s $1,003,045,358 before its done, even though its 2008 predecessor earned 533.3 million here in North America, a total The Dark Knight Rises won’t come near.
Premium Rush was directed by noted screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spider-Man). The film earned a strong 75% positive rating from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but hasn’t been able to break through with audiences yet.
The right wing anti-Obama film 2016 Obama’s America ended up in 8th place on the weekend before the start of the Republican convention.
The indie production Hit and Run, which stars Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell, was produced for under $2 million, so even if it did have a disappointing tenth place opening, it earned an estimated $4.7 million, so it’s already in the black.
Part of the reason that none of this week’s newcomers did well was a lack of strong marketing campaigns. Sony did some TV spots for Premium Rush, but Warner Bros. just abandoned the horror film The Apparition, which opened in just 810 theaters and earned a mere $2.95 million as it debuted in the #12 spot.
Check back next week to see if a handful of new films including the horror movie The Possession and Tsui Hark’s wuxia (martial arts) extravaganza The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate can make an impression on the box office.