THE DARK KNIGHT WILL FALL

Three movies take on the final weekend of the Olympics and Batman over the weekend, and tracking studies and pundits’ analyses indicate that at least one of them will do so successfully. That one would be The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner, who is replacing Matt Damon in the franchise’s lead role. It’s expected to debut with around $45-50 million — that’s regarded as good for a film costing $125 million (Total Recall, which cost the same amount, opened with just $25 million last weekend). Nevertheless, such a result would fall way below the opening takes for the previous two Bourne installments. (2004’s The Bourne Supremacy debuted with $52.5 million, while 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum opened with $69.3 million.) Also giving The Dark Knight Rises a run for the money will be the Will Ferrell political comedy The Campaign, which is forecast to come in with around $25-30 million. Lastly, there’s Hope Springs — which was actually sprung on audiences on Wednesday. The low-budget comedy starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones took in about $2.2 million on Wednesday and will likely earn an addition $12-15 million through Sunday, mostly from older moviegoers. Meanwhile, The Dark Knight Rises, which has held the top spot at the box office for the previous three weeks, is expected to slip to third place this weekend with around $22-27 million.