Iron Man 2’s Armor Too Strong for Robin Hood in Weekend Box Office Results The 2010’s Summer Movie Season’s second weekend found Tony Stark going up against a trio of new films and defeating all of them. The biggest challenger, Universal’s $200+ million Robin Hood, opened to good but not great numbers, while Summit’s Letters to Juliet and Fox Searchlight’s Just Wright stumbled out of the gate. Overall, the box office was up a slight three percent from this weekend last year, when Sony’s Angels and Demons narrowly beat out Paramount’s Star Trek for the top spot.
Paramount and Marvel’s Iron Man 2 scored an estimated $53 million from 4,380 screens this weekend to bring its ten day domestic total to approximately $212.2 million. The film dropped an understandable 59% from last week’s big $128 million opening. As we all know by now, the opening weekend is when big event films such as Iron Man 2 bring the most viewers in so steep drop offs are expected. In comparison, the original Iron Man fell 48% in its sophomore session two years ago to score $51.2 million from 4,111 screens. The next few weekends will determine if the sequel will surpass the $318 million domestic total of the original or come close to it. Overseas, the movie will have no problem achieving that feat. As of May 13th, Iron Man 2’s foreign take stood at $216, a mere $50 million behind its predecessor.
Second place went to Universal’s Robin Hood which speared $37.1 million in sales from 3,503 screens. The studio, which has been having nothing but bad luck at the box office this year, was hoping that they had another Gladiator on their hands with the fifth pairing of director Ridley Scott and star Russell Crowe. A number of factors dictated otherwise: Hood lacked the 2000 Oscar-winner’s sense of adventure and solid story, the months-long ad campaign was uninspiring, reviews were largely negative and it had a lead actor who simply doesn’t have the same marquee appeal he had a decade ago. On top of all that, was anyone asking for a new Robin Hood movie? Unless word-of-mouth is stellar on the film, Universal might be looking at another 2010 domestic letdown. On the plus side, Scott’s film is doing much better overseas, which may save it in the long run and possibly spawn a more cost-efficient sequel.
Amanda Seyfried, who scored a late winter hit with her romantic drama Dear John, attempted to see if lightning would strike twice with her latest romantic flick to deal with correspondence, Letters to Juliet (could “An IM to Monica” be far behind?). With $13.7 million from 2,968 screens, lightning turned out to be more like a low rumble of thunder. The audience was made up mostly of tween girls who could care less about Tony Stark or Robin Hood. Reviews were largely negative.
Scoring a technical foul in fourth place was Fox Searchlight’s basketball comedy Just Wright with $8.5 million from 1,831 screens. The film, starring Queen Latifah and Common, might have caught the eye of those who may have been watching the NBA Playoffs on TNT and ESPN, but not many outside of that. Of the three debuts, Just Wright scored the highest approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But since those approval ratings were in the 40-percentile range, the scores are hardly worth starting an Oscar campaign over (Robin nabbed 45%, Juliet 43% and Wright 46%).
The top ten’s remaining films were holdovers from the past couple of months, once again led by Dreamworks Animation’s blockbuster How To Train Your Dragon in fifth place with $5.1 million in estimated sales. Off only 23%, the film has now amassed $207.7 million domestically (the international gross is also sitting at $207 million). Warner/New Line’s A Nightmare on Elm Street dropped by roughly 49% from last weekend to land in sixth place for $4.7 million and a new estimated total of $56.1 million. The film should finish between $60-65 within the next few weeks, roughly the same amount as 2009 ‘s Friday the 13th remake. Both horror films were produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes company.
In seventh place with a slight 27% drop was the Fox comedy hit Date Night with another $4 million put in the bank to bring its total to $86.6 million. In eighth place and dropping 51% from last weekend was the Jennifer Lopez comedy The Back-Up Plan with $2.47 million to bring its total to $34.7 million. Ninth went to the Brendan Frasier comedy Furry Vengeance with $2.3 million. Off 49%, the film has pulled in $16 million to date. Rounding out the top ten was Warner’s hit Clash of the Titans with $1.3 million. Dipping 49%, the remake has grossed a solid $160.1 million thus far.
Next weekend, Dreamworks will unleash its latest 3D animated cartoon Shrek Forever After (or is it Shrek: the Final Chapter?) and Universal will debut MacGruber, based on the Saturday Night Live character. Shrek should have no trouble debuting at number one, while MacGruber should find little trouble making back its paltry $10 million production budget.
Predict what these new films will make as well as a few of the holdovers in our weekly interactive feature, the Weekend Box Office Prophet Game, with Blu-ray and DVD prizing up for grabs.
– Shawn Fitzgerald
