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CARS 2 overperformed a bit, although $75M isn’t much higher than the original Cars opening ($60M) plus 3D ticket prices. It should hold well over the holiday weekend (the talking vehicles in Transformers skew a little older), but the following week it’ll face Paul Blart and his chatty animals in ZOOKEEPER, and that may be more of a challenge.
BAD TEACHER turned out to be a brilliant piece of counterprogramming against the squeaky-clean Cars 2. Not only is it headed for 50% more than Diaz’s last comedy opening (What Happens In Vegas), it should make considerably more than the $26M earned in the first 5 days by Knight and Day, which also featured a guy named Cruise. Its C+ Cinemascore is nothing to brag about; nevertheless, with the giant success of this and Bridesmaids, expect a lot of actresses to be saying dirty words on screen over the next couple of years.
GREEN LANTERN‘s collapse makes it another failure for Warners and DC Comics to develop a non-Christopher Nolan franchise. The pressure that was already on Zack Snyder and his Superman movie The Man Of Steel just got a lot heavier.
MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS held quite nicely, especially in the face of Cars 2. It’s still not going to be a big moneymaker, but it won’t embarrass anyone.
While MIDNIGHT IN PARIS continued to romp its way to being a blockbuster in Woody Allen terms, TREE OF LIFE almost doubled its theatre count (still only at 215) and took a hit on its per-theatre number to around $6500; Beginners had similar results. A BETTER LIFE, which will be a major marketing challenge for Summit, is headed for an OK $16K in each of only 4 art theatres, while the documentary CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP will find its audience (if at all) on the home screen, with just $4K per theatre in 40.
Next weekend will be all TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON. Or “weekend,” since Paramount is opening the movie at 9PM Tuesday night in order to stretch its holiday to 6 1/2 days. (The last Transformers, which opened on Wednesday–meaning Tuesday midnight–the week before July 4th, racked up $215M in its first 6 days, on its way to a $402M domestic total.) Universal and Fox will try to counterprogram with soft romantic comedies, respectively the genial LARRY CROWNE aimed at older audiences, and MONTE CARLO for younger girls.
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