An unspectacular yet balanced weekend at the box office saw Judd Apatow’s R-rated Funny People starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen claim the top prize with $23.4 million. The total is right at or just below expectations and falls in between The 40 Year-Old Virgin’s $21.4 million and Knocked Up’s $30.7 million opening weekends.
Another newcomer this past weekend, Fox’s Aliens in the Attic, failed to break out. It managed only $7.8 in ticket receipts for a fifth place finish and fast pass to home video.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Disney’s G-Force each eclipsed the $17 million mark for a second and third place finish, respectively. Potter continues to build on its $250 million plus domestic gross but will not catch the nearly $400 million Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has sucked up.
The complete box office results for July 30 – August 1 are as follows (click linked titles to read our review):
- 1. Funny People: $23.44m
- 2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: $17.7m
- 3. G-Force: $17m
- 4. The Ugly Truth: $13m
- 5. Aliens in the Attic: $7.8m
- 6. The Orphan: $7.25m
- 7. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: $5.3m
- 8. The Hangover: $5m
- 9. The Proposal: $4.8m
- 10. Transformers Revenge of the Fallen: $4.6m
Next weekend sees Paramount’s GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra swing into action on 3500 screens without Paramount’s full endorsement. They are only screening the film in extremely limited markets despite early word from those attending screenings returning with positive reactions. It will be one of the harder weekend box office openings to predict this summer.
The Joes and Cobra will square off against the comedy Julie & Julia and the thriller A Perfect Getaway.
