THE BOX OFFICE REPORT: JUNE 24

Here’s a new idea I had…

Now that we are the LAMB’s Best Blog (it’s true!) I figured there’s only one thing that we needed to do here at Man, I Love Films… ADD STUFF!

We’ve been in some need of a good Box Office report around here and I’m going to give it to you. Every Sunday night I’ll bring you a summary of the weekend that was and tell you what the numbers mean, you know, beyond that people either made a crapload of money or are probably going to be looking for a new job.

Here we go!

Numbers are in the millions (because I figured thousands was a little ridiculous) and they are estimates from the studios. Actual numbers (which are usually within a couple million of the estimates) should be released sometime Monday:

1. Brave – $66.7 (first week)

Pixar has struck gold again with Brave. The Scottish lady-archer-Robin Hood-esque tale took the top spot at the box office this weekend. It became Pixar’s fourth biggest non-sequel opening (which basically means it was in the middle of the pack Pixar-wise) and did nudge out ahead of last year’s disappointing Cars 2. While I do believe that it’s good to be the biggest movie of the weekend and it certainly did well, it will be more interesting to see how well it carries over to next weekend. If it has good word-of-mouth then it might be able to hit the $200 million mark overall, but I think that it’s going to end up just short of that goal, probably in the $170-180 zone (which just so happens to be it’s budget). Pixar is going to need Monsters University to be a big hit or people are going to start asking some questions.

2. Madagascar 3 – $20.2 ($157.6 total)

The third film in the animated zoo animals series closes in on it’s predecessors ($193 for the first, $180 for the second). Brave‘s presence certainly hurt it this weekend to be sure. It’ll end up around the other two films, probably falling just short of the original’s mark.

3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - $16.5 (first week)

A bit of a disappointing debut for the action flick. I’m really not surprised as it was a tough film to market. The audience for it was going to be small and it is going to depend on how well people liked it (and how many people read our site!) and how many people take that as a suggestion to check out our 16th President chopping up Robert Pattinsons.

4. Prometheus – $10.0 ($108.5 total)

It’s difficult to compare Ridley Scott’s new epic sci-fi tale with his original epic sci-fi tale when it comes to the Box Office. It should pass it’s $130 million budget in a few weeks (not counting it’s international numbers of course) but that has to be a bit of a disappointment for something that was deemed in the trailers as the most anticipated movie of the year. I’m sure the mixed reviews hurt the film and I doubt that we will be seeing a continuation of the story of Dr. Shaw.

5. Rock of Ages -$8.0 ($28.8 total)

Slightly soap boxy response coming in 3…2…1… The disappointing box office results for this film are not Tom Cruise’s fault. Every review I’ve read says he is the best part and those that I know that have seen it have agreed with that sentiment. It’s the musical angle that’s hurting the film. And Russell Brand. I think people are done with him. His FX comedy show won’t last longer than a season.

6. Snow White and the Huntsman -$8.0 ($137.1 total)

I know that this is still on my personal To-See list. I wonder how many are like me and just haven’t gotten a chance to see it in theaters. It’s probably done well enough that we might see another film in the series, not that stars Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth needed another series of films to work on.

7. That’s My Boy – $7.9 ($28.2 total)

If we average tickets out to be $10 each (all of L.A. just shook their heads, wishing that we could see a movie for $10) then that means that almost three million people have seen That’s My Boy. This saddens me.

8. The Avengers – $7.0 ($598.3 total)

As of probably Wednesday or Thursday this coming week, Marvel’s hero orgy will become only the third film ever to gross over $600 million domestically. Big big numbers for the Joss Whedon flick. Well deserved, too.

9. Men In Black 3 – $5.6 ($163.3 total)

It looks like the sequel that no one asked for is going to fall short of the second Men in Black. Not really surprising. I don’t remember hearing anyone saying “I can’t wait for Men in Black 3!” and I live and work in Los Angeles.

10. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World – $3.8 (first week)

Very low numbers for the Steve Carell dramedy. It only had a $10 million budget so it won’t be a flop, but it’s certainly not a success.

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That’s it until next Sunday! Next week we get a quartet of new releases, with none of them likely to take the top spot from Brave (although we might see a small upset if Ted gets all of the “Family Guy” fans to leave their homes). And I guess we should never count out Madea. Although damn it all, I wish we could…