Box Office Weekend (8/8-8/10) - Batman vs. Pineapple Express
 

It's gonna be close...

1 Pineapple Express $7,845,000
2 The Dark Knight $7,525,000
3 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor $4,820,000
4 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 $3,925,000
5 Step Brothers $2,725,000
6 Mamma Mia! $2,455,000
7 Journey to the Center of the Earth $1,380,000
8 Hancock $1,010,000
9 Swing Vote $930,000
10 WALL-E $905,000

Deadline Hollywood:

SATURDAY PM: Studio sources tell me that very early domestic numbers show that Warner Bros' The Dark Knight won its 4th straight weekend after taking in $26 million, compared to No. 2, Sony's Pineapple Express with $22 million. The Batman installment's easy win was fueled by Saturday's +37% gross compared to Friday's, while the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen stoner comedy fell -6% from Friday to Saturday. Full report on Sunday...

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.co...e-express-22m/

For some reason, I'm still expecting Pineapple Express to take the weekend. It's just so close, though it did have a pretty steep drop after the wednesday opening.

^ You also have to look at the increase from Thursday-Friday. PE was up 31.9%, TDK 60.5%. That's pretty telling that PE was fairly front-loaded and continued from Friday-Saturday as well...

Well, that is good news. Don't get me wrong, nothing would make me happier than to see TDK rule weekend for FOUR weekends straight, I just have to assume something is going to take it down soon enough, even if it just is for a margin.

But if those numbers hold, then yeah, TDK definitely wins Saturday and Sunday.

Well, next week most likely both TT and Star Wars will overtake TDK. I see TDK making around $16m, so those movies should be able to easily make more than that...

1 THE DARK KNIGHT 26.03
2 PINEAPPLE EXPRESS 22.40
3 THE MUMMY:TOMB OF THE DRAGON.. 16.11
4 SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING..2 10.77
5 STEP BROTHERS 8.90
6 MAMMA MIA! 8.08
7 JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE.. 4.86
8 HANCOCK 3.30
9 SWING VOTE 3.11
10 WALL-E 3.04

Woo TDK!

Tropic Thunder is going to be big, not huge, but big. I'm seeing like a 50 mil weekend. Star Wars I think will only do like 25 mil. So in other words, 4 weekends is it for Dark Knight, it had a good run.

Pineapple Express was front loaded with stoners but a lot of people in my office were talking about it, like 50 year olds. Hopefully it brings in audiences for a few weeks.

A movie is number one for four straight weeks. In summer. Thanks to repeat viewings. It really is 1989 again, isn't it?

So you think TT is going to make $50m in its 3-day weekend? Remember, it also opens on a Wednesday like PE did...

4 million difference for the weekend isn't that close. I can't imagine a variance of more then 1 or 2 mil.

That was posted before the final estimates were out.

From BOM:

1 1 The Dark Knight WB $26,030,000 -39.0% 4,025 -241 $6,467 $441,541,000 $185 4
2 N Pineapple Express Sony $22,400,000 - 3,072 - $7,291 $40,474,000 $27 1
3 2 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Uni. $16,113,000 -60.2% 3,778 +18 $4,264 $70,671,000 $145 2
4 N The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 WB $10,770,000 - 2,707 - $3,978 $19,712,000 $27 1
5 3 Step Brothers Sony $8,900,000 -46.1% 3,182 +88 $2,796 $80,903,000 $65 3
6 4 Mamma Mia! Uni. $8,081,000 -35.9% 3,194 +132 $2,530 $104,017,000 $52 4
7 5 Journey to the Center of the Earth WB (NL) $4,855,000 -27.1% 1,970 -315 $2,464 $81,759,000 $60 5
8 7 Hancock Sony $3,300,000 -35.1% 2,258 -524 $1,461 $221,709,000 $150 6
9 6 Swing Vote BV $3,106,000 -50.1% 2,213 - $1,403 $12,002,000 $21 2
10 8 Wall-E BV $3,045,000 -33.9% 2,144 -411 $1,420 $210,112,000 $180 7
11 10 Space Chimps Fox $1,650,000 -39.3% 1,631 -503 $1,011 $25,447,000 $37 4

I wonder what the numbers would have been like if The Dark Knight wasn't playing at 1,000 more theaters than Pineapple Express.

TDK is less than $160 million away from Titanic's domestic record, and it hasn't even been in theaters a month yet. I wouldn't be surprised if fan-boy "desire" to overthrow Titanic might get it to that magic $600 million number.

Perhaps, but Warner doesn't seem to expect that. From comingsoon.net

"If the estimate holds, then the Christopher Nolan-directed film has surpassed Shrek 2 ($441.226 million) to climb to the third spot on the all-time domestic blockbuster list, trailing just Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope ($460.998 million) and Titanic ($600.788 million). Warner Bros. Pictures said it expects "Dark Knight" to end up with about $520 million domestically. The movie cost $185 million to make."

I guessing that it is losing steam and will maybe barely top $500 million.

Even combined they won't touch Gone With the Wind's 1.2 billion.







:) Adjusted for inflation of course.

Well, WB was underestimating TDK's OW ;)

But short of a big re-release for the Oscars (and it would have to be outside of just Ledger in terms of Oscar buzz), this will have a tough time getting to $600m. VERY tough.

I kind of see it topping out at around $530 million. Even though it's made a ton, it is still making less and less, something that Titantic didn't start off doing. Unless they have a small re-release in the fall, it just isn't possible. As I've said before, as soon as summer ends and people (kids, teens, and college students), the numbers will drop more steeply.

Besides even if Dark Knight crossed $600 million and overtook Titanic for the #1 spot James Cameron (and his ego) would immediately re-release it out of spite until Titanic ends up at no. 1.

Well, actually the weekday drops will be more harsh, but weekends could still be strong. But I think it will top around $520m or so... I certainly hope there won't be people disappointed if it doesn't reach $600m because nobody saw this coming earlier this year (in fact, if someone said a movie was going to make over $450m, let alone $500m, they would've said Indiana Jones 4).

I don't have an Imax around here, so I don't know how those theater's work, but how long will TDK stay in those?

Until at least September 26 when "Eagle Eye" is set to release on Imax. It wouldn't surprise me if EE doesn't do too well, they put TDK back on a couple weeks later. After that, November 7 is Madagascar 2 and November 21 is Harry Potter.

But...Titanic adjusted for inflation is close to $900M...and $900 + $520 is, last I checked, greater than 1.2 billion. That's of course ignoring international box office, where Titanic made so much god damn money the puny $600M domestic take starts to look small.

No, math was different back in 1939.

:)