By Chris Kavan - 06/19/11 at 11:43 PM CT
It appears that a shiny green suit and loads of CGI are good enough for first place, but not good enough to wow moviegoers.
Despite opening in #1 with $52.7 million over the weekend, Green Lantern is on the low end for comic book heroes. Thor opened with $65.7 million while X-Men: First Class recently had a $55.1 opening. Plus, 3D accounted for about 45% of the gross. In terms of attendance, Green Lantern was on par with Daredevil and Ghost Rider - a worrying sign for a film that cost $200 million and has had a huge marketing push.
In second place, and dropping a relatively modest 40% was the sci-fi 80s throwback Super 8. The J.J. Abrams / Steven Spielberg collaboration made $21.2 million and now stands at $72.8 million - and could rise if Father's Day numbers increase. The film held on to more of its audience than comparable films District 9 and Cloverfield.
In third place was the week's other new wide-release, Mr. Popper's Penguins. The Jim Carrey vehicle earned $18.2 million. It was on the low end for both Carrey and family films - the closest comparison is to Surf's Up. Unless it finds some good will, it will have a tough time earning back its modest $55 million budget.
X-Men: First Class came in 4th with $11.5 million and a $119.9 million total. Despite having a better critical reception, it lags behind all other X-Men films in third-week grosses and is also last in total gross for the same time period.
In 5th place, The Hangover Part II added to its 2011-highest film gross by adding another $9.6 million and now stands at $232.6 million. I have a feeling the Wolf Pack will be hard-pressed to give up the title until Transformers and Harry Potter hit the big screen.
While X-Men: First Class suffered a pretty steep 52% drop, the winner (well, loser) of the steepest audience drop of the week belongs to Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer, which barely clung to the top 10 after having a massive 63% decline. With just $2.2 million, it broke $10 million for an $11.1 million total.
On the other hand, winning the week for retaining the most of its audience was Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (finally beating out Bridesmaids long-standing run). With just a little over a 10% decline, the 9th-place film took in $5.2 million and now stands at $21.8 million. Not bad considering it's still playing in about half as many theaters than any other film in the top 10.
Two films are nearing the $150 million mark - a great sign for one film - but not for another. It's a good sign for Bridesmaids, which ended up in 7th place with a $7.4 million take and a $136.8 million total. Considering it only cost $32.5 million, a $150 million+ total will look pretty good. On the other hand Kung Fu Panda 2 took in $8.7 million and shed about 47% of its audience. It stands at $143.3 million and should also break $150 million. Too bad it also cost $150 million to make.
Next week's big films are going to be the Pixar direct sequel Cars 2 - which should do pretty well considering the state of family films and Cameron Diaz trying her best to be a Bad Teacher. We'll see just how bad that turns out.
