After a dismal 2011, Hollywood’s had an incredible run in 2012 with all kinds of unlikely hits. But this weekend is down 18% over last year because four seemingly sure-fire entries have tanked. “Battleship,” “The Dictator,” “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” both opened soft this week, and the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton re-imagining of “Dark Shadows” sank 61% after an already disappointing debut last weekend.
Universal’s decision to open “Battleship” overseas weeks before its North American debut might have been a mistake. While the sci-fi actioner made a ton of international money, word had plenty of time to spread over here about it being just another bloated blockbuster. Best laid plans…
What’s fascinating about “Battleship” is that, by all accounts, it’s a very patriotic film and, for over a decade now, the left-wing propagandists in Hollywood and the media that carries their water have told us that American patriotism doesn’t sell overseas. Well, here’s a case of an openly patriotic film making a ton of money internationally but not here in America (almost certainly as a result of word of mouth).
Riddle me that, liars.
As far as “The Dictator” goes, I do hope this ends the farce that the undeniably talented Sacha Baron Cohen is some kind of comedy phenom. “Borat” made a respectable $128 million, but “Bruno” barely topped $60 million, and “The Dictator” is already on life support.
DHD:
My sources have these Friday and weekend numbers for North America. As I’ve been posting all day, everything is tanking except Marvel’s The Avengers, which sucked all the air out of the box office for the 3rd straight weekend. Tomorrow it will become the highest grossing domestic release in Disney’s history. Joss Whedon’s superhero assembly is already the studio’s highest grossing film of all time globally, and will pass the $450M mark this weekend. Demonstrating just how lackluster the new movies are, audiences gave Universal’s Battleship only a ‘B’ CinemaScore, Lionsgate’s What To Expect When You’re Expecting a ‘B-‘, and Paramount’s The Dictator a ‘C’. So don’t expect word of mouth to improve these numbers much, if at all. Overall moviegoing this weekend is looking like $130M, which is -18% from last year.
1. Marvel’s The Avengers (Disney) Week 3 [4,349 Runs] PG13
Friday $15.5M, Weekend $52.5M, Cume $454.5M2. Battleship (Universal) NEW [3,690 Runs] PG13
Friday $9.5M, Weekend $26M3. The Dictator (Paramount) NEW-Wed [3,008 Runs] R
Friday $5.5M, Weekend $16.0M, Cume $23.0M4. What To Expect When You’re Expecting (Lionsgate) NEW [3,021 Runs] PG13
Friday $4.4M, Weekend $12.0M5. Dark Shadows (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,755 Runs] PG13
Friday $3.7M (-61%), Weekend $11.5M, Cume $49.6M
Much more analysis here.
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