8/26/2012

Tops at the Box Office: 'The Expendables 2' holds strong; Obama doc surprises


1. The Expendables 2- $13.5M/$52.3M
Holding strong against a handful of weak newcomers, The Expendables 2 tumbled 52%, which is about par for the course. But at this point it's clearly not going to match what the previous film did, at least not on the domestic front. If there's any hope of seeing The Expendables 3 it may be up to what it can bring in on the foreign market.
2. The Bourne Legacy- $9.3M/$85.5M
3. ParaNorman- $8.5M/$28.2M
4. The Campaign- $7.4M/$64.5M
5. The Dark Knight Rises- $7.15M/$422.2M
At over $900M worldwide, the wrap-up to Christopher Nolan's Batman films is outdoing The Dark Knight overseas, and should break into the Top 10 all-time in the next few days.
6. The Odd Life of Timothy Green- $7.1M/$27M
7. Premium Rush- $6.3M
Well, it was obvious by the way Sony kept kicking this film around on the calendar that they had no idea what to do with the bike messenger flick. So they did the smart thing and tried to piggyback off Joseph Gordon-Levitt's turn in The Dark Knight Rises, to no avail as it turns out. The film opened at a measly 2200 theaters and will likely be forgotten in a week.
8. 2016: Obama's America- $6.2M/$9M
Well, I guess the appearance of this "conservative" anti-Obama documentary on the list is a surprise if one forgets there's quite a market in hate-mongering and conspiracy theory. The film has been out for nearly two months but it faces a perfect storm that helped bump it up an incredible 400% this week. Expanding to 1091 theaters, the Dinesh D'Souza-directed film comes just as the Republican National Convention is around the corner. But the real reason for the film's success can be found by perusing the stinky bathroom of "conservative" websites and blogs, where the film is being hyped as the second coming of Atlas Shrugged. Oh wait....
9. Hope Springs- $6M/$45M
10. Hit and Run- $4.7M/$5.9M
Just cracking the top 10 is the action road trip comedy from real life lovers, Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell. Despite neither of them being the most marketable pair in the world, and Shepard a mostly unproven director, Open Road was smart to highlight the presence of a dreadlocked Bradley Cooper. It worked, for the most part, as the small budget film has already tripled its production budget and likely has a couple more weeks of viability in it.