Weekend box office: The Avengers sinks Battleship and The Dictator
Brad Sturdivant
May 20th, 2012
Like we all expected, BATTLESHIP (read our BATTLESHIP movie review) tanked at the weekend box office, not even able to take in half of what THE AVENGERS was able to make in it’s third weekend. Apparently, the scores of people that correctly predicted a TRANSFORMERS rip-off with the name of a popular board game would tank were correct. Just to put it in perspective, this is the second major disaster of the year for star Taylor Kitsch. His last bomb, JOHN CARTER, cost a Disney executive his job, so we’ll see if anyone gets fired at Universal for this disaster.
But BATTLESHIP wasn’t the only new movie of the weekend. We also saw Sacha Baron Cohen’s THE DICTATOR under-perform, despite a major marketing push from Paramount. And poor Baron Cohen was in character just about anywhere that would have him trying to put people in the seats. But his efforts resulted in a very weak third place finish. The last major new movie of the weekend was WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING, which featured a bunch of pregnant women complaining about having kids. I know, it sounds like box office gold, but apparently, not even women wanted to see it as the film limped along in fifth place.
Next week sees the release of MEN IN BLACK III, which is more famous at this point for all the problems the film had in production (going forward without a second act). It will be interesting to see if the film works and if America still cares about the Men in Black. People love Will Smith, so the film should give THE AVENGERS a run for its money. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. The Avengers $55m
2.Battleship $25.3m
3. The Dictator $17.4m
4. Dark Shadows $12.7m
5. What To Expect When You’re Expecting $10.5m
6. Best Exotic Marigold Hotel $3.2m
7. The Hunger Games $3m
8. Think Like A Man $2.7m
9. The Lucky One $1.7m
10. Pirates! Band of Misfits $1.4m
(Deadline)
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