WEEKLY BOX OFFICE ACTUALS & YEAR TO DATE: July 23-29

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A fairly forgettable week at the box office — two new films open to little business and Dark Knight Rises continues to lead the pack, although at a significantly slower pace than its predecessor The Dark Knight.

The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume

All films in wide release playing between July 23 and July 29 grossed an unspectacular $232 million, close to the four-year average for the comparable week (up 2%) but down 11% from the same week in 2011 (when the final Harry Potter was still going strong and Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs opened with over $35 million). Year to date (now almost $6.3 billion for wide-release films) is still running 8% ahead of 2011 .  Similarly, the year-to-date total is 7% ahead of the multi-year average for the similar period.

Weekend Actuals versus Studio Estimate

The official second weekend number for The Dark Knight Rises is $62,101,451, down 3% from the studio estimate Sunday morning.  Sunday turned out to be worse than Warner Brothers estimated (down 17% or $4.0 million from the same day for Dark Knight), not as bad as Friday’s comparison (down 24% or $5.5 million) but a little worse than Saturday (down 13% or $3.6 million).  

The two openers this past weekend also came in below their studio estimates, although the difference was smaller than Batman’s.  The Watch opened with $12,750,297, down 2% from the studio estimate, while Step Up Revolution opened with $11,731,708 officially, down a mere 0.6% from Summit’s estimate Sunday morning.  

Updated Estimates of Final Grosses

The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Grosses (the estimated North American gross when the film ends its run) are summarized below for films released the last six weeks. Pay attention to the final domestic grosses, which are much more important than individual weekend grosses and especially weekend rankings.