THE BOX OFFICE REPORT: AUGUST 5

Now I just feel bad for Colin Farrell… Because it looks like he ran into a buzz-saw.

1. The Dark Knight Rises – $36.4 ($354.6 total)

Batman continues to hold on to the top spot. Last week I predicted a high-$30/low-$40 million take for the finale of Christopher Nolan’s epic trilogy, and I wasn’t too far off with that. The $350+ total thus far puts it well on track to pass up The Hunger Games‘$406 million cume. Again, it’s nowhere near the final take of The Avengers (which went over $600 million) but when all is said and done, it’s going to be an extremely lucrative series for Warner Brothers and Nolan, especially. It’s run at #1 is probably over with The Bourne Legacy hitting theaters next weekend, but expect it to hang around the Top 5 throughout August.

2. Total Recall – $26.0 (first week)

Well I guess we’ve learned that almost anything is able to be remade but one thing that maybe shouldn’t be remade is a classic action thriller starring Arnold Schwarzeneggar. Even though the trailers were quite good, the Len Wiseman-directed flick managed just a 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, a death sentence for its potential word-of-mouth. I’ll put it this way: I was intrigued by the remake and even had a day off today, but I chose to avoid the film because of the poor reviews, figuring a rental will work for me. I can’t be the only one. And when you throw in the $125 million budget,things are not looking good for Colin… maybe he should stick to the supporting cast position (see: Horrible Bosses, In Bruges).

3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days – $14.7 (first week)

The combination of opening in the most screens for the series and scoring the lowest opening yet is not a good one for the adolescent film. Dog Days will surely make back its budget (a mere $22 million) but it won’t sniff the $50-60 million window that the first two films found itself in. Related note… There’s three of these movies?!?! Moving on…

4. Ice Age: Continental Drift – $8.4 ($131.9 total)

The prehistoric animated animals continue to trudge forward slowly, heaping more money onto it’s worldwide total that now exceeds $700 million. Like I’ve said before, the fifth film will be here in just a matter of a few years. Fox has no reason not to.

5. The Watch – $6.4 ($25.4 total)

The bomb continues to, well, explode. I think this is worst for Vince Vaughn. This will mark two straight films of his to not make $50 million over its run (following in the footsteps of last year’s horrid-looking The Dilemma). He is going to need next year’s re-teaming with Owen Wilson called The Internship (plot summary: Two recently laid-off men in their forties, try to make it as interns at a successful Internet company where their managers are in their twenties) to score big with critics and audiences alike, otherwise times might get tough for the potentially “former” funnyman.

6. Ted – $5.5 ($203.4 total)

Crossing the $200 million mark, Ted now stands as the fifth highest grossing R-rated comedy of All-Time, and by the end of next weekend, it should pass up Wedding Crashers to become #4 (only behind both Hangovers and Beverly Hills Cop). The impressive keeps getting more impressive. I guess the only question is when we can expect the next feature film from Seth Macfarlane…

7. Step Up: Revolution – $5.3 ($23.1 total)

A predictable drop for the dance flick, but the 54% drop from last week was the biggest drop of the weekend, and that’s probably a disappointment for the filmmakers. Maybe audiences just wanted to see more dancing and less revolution, but that’s just a theory.

8. The Amazing Spider-Man – $4.3 ($250.6 total)

Spidey continues to hang in the Top 10 and crosses the $250 mark. It also sits comfortably in the 4th spot for the year 2012, although it does have a couple heavy hitters coming up in the last quarter of the year (I’m looking at you Skyfall, The Hobbit, and, sadly, Twilight).

9. Brave – $2.9 ($223.3 total)

Another film that keeps hanging around longer than I’d thought. Good for Pixar. It’s still not a huge hit (it rests at 9th All-Time for Pixar, although it will pass Wall-E to become the 8th highest out of 13 films) but at least it didn’t completely disappoint.

10. Magic Mike – $1.4 ($110.9 total)

Channing Tatum continues to bring in the moolah. My only question is this: How much MORE money would it have made if the audience would have been able to pay him in person, and more specifically, with singles?

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As I’ve said before, next week marks the release of The Bourne Legacy, a smartly created sideways quasi-sequel to the fantastically underrated Bourne Identity trilogy. While I don’t think that it will meet the openings of the second or third films in the series ($52 million and $69 million respectively) I think it should get to $40 million because of its brand and how it looks to have creatively added to this series. I know I’ll be in the theater next weekend supporting Jeremy Renner… will you?

Until next week!