7/24/2011
Tops at the Box Office: The First Avenger #1 Amongst Superhero Debuts
1. Captain America: The First Avenger- $65.8M
Saving the biggest for last, Captain America opened to a bigger opening weekend than every other superhero film this summer, beating out Thor's $65.7M, X-men: First Class's $55.1M, and Green Lantern's $53M. This bodes well for the future of The Avengers, which this film was mostly a setup for. The final tally was bolstered by 40% 3-D sales, which is down 20% from Thor. That means more audience actually turned our for Cap's WWII adventure than that of the god of thunder.
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 2- $48.1M/$274M
Too much too soon? Maybe it was the presence of another summer tentpole that aided in the drubbing Harry Potter took in week 2, but whatever the case a 72% drop in audience is disturbing. It's not going to stop the boy wizard from cleaning up north of $300M domestic, but $400M seems unlikely. International totals will help, although all of this must be tempered by the addition of 3-D prices, which none of the past movies ever had.
3. Friends with Benefits- $18.5M
Same movie, different stars. If we judge strictly by the numbers, America is a little more interested in watching Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman get it on than Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. Perverts. Friends with Benefits fell slightly short of No Strings Attached's $19.7M. What remains to be seen is if Benefits can pick up a similar foreign box office and come close to equaling Attached's $140M+ total.
4. Transformers: Dark of the Moon- $12M/$326M
Officially the highest grossing film of the trilogy worldwide at over $880M.
5. Horrible Bosses- $11.7M/$82.4M
6. Zookeeper- $8.7M/$59.2M
7. Cars 2- $5.73M/$176M
8. Winnie the Pooh- $5.14M/$17.6M
Silly ol' bear.
9. Bad Teacher- $2.6M/$94.4M
10. Midnight in Paris- $1.9M/$44.9M