Like the title character in the movie, Brüno made a spectacular entrance on Friday, earning $14.4 million and leading some box-office forecasters who had predicted a $40-million weekend debut for the film to proclaim, "I told you so." But Saturday saw a large dropoff, taking a 39-percent tumble to generate just $8.8 million on the second day of the weekend. Universal estimated that it would sell about $7.2 million worth of tickets on Sunday, giving Brüno a $30.4-million total for the weekend. [Update: Final result: $30,619,130.] Marc Lacter on the LABizObserved blog observed: "In an age when young moviegoers routinely text-message critiques to their friends while they're still watching the film on a Friday, such a dropoff could signal some seriously bad buzz." Nevertheless, the weekend total will unquestionably wind up being greater than the 2006 opening for Sacha Baron Cohen's previous Candid-Camera-like feature, Borat, which debuted with $26.5 million, but analysts were quick to point out that Borat opened in 837 theaters -- far fewer than Brüno's 2,756 -- and then went on to earn $28.3 million in its second weekend when it expanded into 2,566 theaters. Analysts see little hope that the new film will retain even 40 percent of its audience next weekend, when the discomfited queen of the realm will have to vie against Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest Potter sequel, as well as a new assortment of family, horror, and "chick flicks." While this weekend's box office was down about 5 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when Hellboy II: The Golden Army opened with $34.5 million, next weekend's is expected to go through the roof. (This weekend's wasn't helped by the fact that the only other film to open wide, the teen comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper, found hardly any love at all as it took in just $5 million.) On the other hand, holdovers performed reasonably well. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs remained in second place with about $28.5 million -- pushing its total to about $120.6 million after 12 days. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen dropped to third place from first as it added $24.2 million to its gross, which now stands at $339.2 million. Public Enemies fell 44 percent in its second weekend to $14.1 million, while The Proposal rounded out the top five with $10.5 million, down just 18 percent from the previous weekend.
The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo:
1. Bruno, $30.4 million; 2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, $28.5 million; 3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, $24.2 million; 4. Public Enemies, $14.1 million; 5. The Proposal, $10.5 million; 6. The Hangover, $9.9 million; 7. I Love You, Beth Cooper, $5 million; 8. Up, $4.7 million; 9. My Sister's Keeper, $4.2 million; 10. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, $1.6 million.
Monday, July 13, 2009
“BRÜNO” GOES OUT OF FASHION FAST
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