Warner Brothers’ big box office bet of the summer, Martin Campbell‘s Green Lantern, opened to a decent $52.7 million weekend. Looking a bit deeper, the film had a massive 20% drop from Friday to Saturday, hinting at poor word of mouth in this busy summer season. It will take a strong international following for this massive budget Ryan Reynolds blockbuster to be deemed a success.
The other debut of the weekend, Jim Carrey‘s Mr. Popper’s Penguins opened in third place to a respectable $18.2m. One of the only original films of the summer, J.J. Abrams‘ Super 8, had a great hold in its second weekend, making $21.25m with only a 40.1% drop.
In other major releases, X-Men: First Class made $11.5m in its third weekend, bringing its total to almost $120m domestically. The Hangover Part II crossed its predecessor at the worldwide box office, hitting almost $450m, while Kung Fu Panda still has almost $300m worldwide to go before crossing the same mark.
Woody Allen celebrated his widest opening ever, as Midnight in Paris crossed the $20m mark, making $5.23m in its fifth weekend. Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life nearly entered the top 10 again as it made $1.1m in an expanded 114 theaters, bringing its total to almost $4m. Fox Searchlight also debuted The Art of Getting By to a dismal $700,000 in 610 theaters.
In other limited releases Jig and Buck did around the same business with the former making $65k in 5 theaters and the latter making $64.4k in 4 theaters. Next week sees the release of Cars 2, which should easily top the box office, as well as Sony’s Bad Teacher. In limited releases A Better Life and Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop both hit theaters.
Check out the Top 10 below (rank. title – wknd gross – total gross)
1. Green Lantern – $52.68m (debut)
2. Super 8 – $21.25m – $72.78m
3. Mr. Popper’s Penguins – $18.2m (debut)
4. X-Men: First Class – $11.5m – $119.92m
5. The Hangover Part II – $9.63m – $232.67m
6. Kung Fu Panda 2 – $8.7m – $143.34m
7. Bridesmaids – $7.48m – $136.84m
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – $6.2m – $220.3m
9. Midnight in Paris – $5.23m – $21.79m
10. Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer – $2.24m – $11.16m
What did you see this weekend? Will you see Cars 2 next weekend?