SHOWBUZZDAILY EARLY WEEKEND BOXOFFICE REPORT 5/26/12

The “kids” didn’t show up for MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) on Saturday–it was wishful thinking to believe they would, considering the franchise’s decade-long absence–and the result, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, was a very mild Friday-to-Saturday bump under 10%.  That puts the picture on track for a 4-day holiday weekend of $67-70M, just at or near the Top 10 Memorial Day openings–and far less than the mammoth cost of MIB3 required.  When international numbers come in on Sunday, we’ll know if the opening is a disappointment, or something worse.

The weekend’s other opening, CHERNOBYL DIARIES (Warners), completely collapsed on Saturday with a dreadful 33% drop that likely means a 4-day weekend of $9-10M and a complete write-off for the studio.

THE AVENGERS (Disney), while ceding #1 for the weekend to MIB3, should have a superb hold, dropping only about 30% in the 3-day comparison (10% if Monday is included) as it crosses the $500M boxoffice mark and keeps climbing.

BATTLESHIP (Universal) will be down close to 60% over 3 days, the disaster slightly eased with Monday added.  THE DICTATOR (Paramount) should be down a bit less than 50% for the 3 day period, with DARK SHADOWS (Warners) down around 40% and WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING (Lionsgate) down only 35% or so.  All of these pictures, however, are substantial underperformers to date.  THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate), on the other hand, keeps going, down only about 20% for the 3-day weekend (despite losing 30% of its theatres since last week) and dead even with Monday included.

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (Fox Searchlight) considers its very solid run, heading for a $5K per-theatre average in 1233 over the 3 day weekend, around $6500 per-theatre including Monday.

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