FRIDAY JUNE 24 BOX OFFICE RESULTS

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

>Cars 2 exceeds its forecast, but will it hold up?  Bad Teacher also blows past its forecast, driving the weekend up 16% over the same weekend last year.

Cars 2 opened with $25.4 million on Friday, and it looks like the Pixar sequel will gross $74 million from Friday-Sunday.  The film is headed for $195 million in North America when it crosses the finish line, according to the ShowBuzzDaily Domestic Final estimate. See Mitch Salem’s review Cars 2. 

Bad Teacher opened with $11.9 million on Friday, on its way to about $32.2 million from Friday-Sunday.  The film is headed for $103 million total in North America. See Mitch Salem’s review of Bad Teacher.   

Green Lantern should drop 64% (much worse than average), and the film has been downgraded to $129 million.  Mr Popper’s Penguins should decline 36% (much better than average) and has been upgraded to $72 million.  Super 8 has been upgraded to $136 million, and Midnight in Paris has been upgraded to $44 million. 

June 24-26, 2011        Pre-Wknd    Wknd            Showbuzz
(millions)              Showbuzz    Early   Friday  Domestic
                        Forecast    Proj.   Actual   Final*
Cars 2 (Dis)             [$67  ]    $74.4   $25.4     $195
Bad Teacher (Sony)       [$25.5]    $32.2   $11.9     $103
Green Lantern (WB)       [$19  ]    $19.0   $ 5.8     $129–
Super 8 (Par)            [$13  ]    $12.7   $ 3.8     $136++
Mr Popper’s Penguins Fox [$10  ]    $11.8   $ 3.6     $ 72++
X-Men: First Class (Fox) [$ 6.5]    $ 6.7   $ 2.0     $153
Hangover Part II (WB)    [$ 5.5]    $ 5.3   $ 1.8     $258
Bridesmaids (Uni)        [$ 5.0]    $ 5.3   $ 1.7     $168
Pirates Caribbean 4 (Dis)[$ 3.5]    $ 5.2   $ 1.5     $246
Kung Fu Panda 2 (Par/DW) [$ 4.5]    $ 4.3   $ 1.3     $170
Midnight in Paris (Sony) [$ 4.0]    $ 4.2   $ 1.2     $ 44

Note: The table above summarizes an early look at the weekend.  The first column is reminder of each film’s ShowbuzzDaily Forecast for the weekend (in brackets).  The second column, on which the films are sorted, displays the new weekend projection for each film, based on the Friday numbers (the third column).  The final column is a preliminary estimate of the ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Total number for the film’s total run in North America.  A “++” indicates the Domestic number has been upgraded; a “–” indicates a downgrade. 

Limited Releases

A Better Life (Summit) opened at 4 theaters and will average a strong $16,600 per theater this weekend, while Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop opened at 40 locations with a disappointing $4,390 average.     

Total Box Office Volume

The Top 12 Films this weekend are looking like $183 million total, up 16% from the same calendar weekend last year.

Top 12 Films: Weekend #25

     Volume
     (millions)
2011  $183  (+8% vs 2007-10 average; +16% vs 2010) 

2007-10
Avg   $169 
            Movies Opening That Weekend
2010  $157  Grown Ups $40, Knight & Day $20    
2009  $193  Transformers Revenge $109, My Sister’s Keeper $12
2008  $180  Wall-E $63, Wanted $51
2007  $147  Ratatouille $47, Live Free or Die Hard $33
 
Next Weekend

Opening next week are Transformers: Dark of the Moon from Paramount/ DreamWorks, romantic comedy Larry Crowne from Universal and romantic comedy Monte Carlo from Fox.  Those movies will be compared to Twilight Saga: Eclipse ($65 million opening weekend) and The Last Airbender ($40 million). 

Look for updates of the weekend box office on Sunday, based on the Saturday actual numbers.