Of course the news yesterday from a certain
courtroom in Florida makes this weekend’s box office news not the first thing
on most people’s minds at the moment. But it must be done.
Once again Despicable
Me 2 was upfront at the No.1 position, with Grown Ups 2 and Pacific Rim battling out for the No. 2 and 3 slots, with Grown Ups doing well with $42
million, and Rim coming in third with a rather so-so $38 million.
Warners had been battling media reports for the past two weeks
that Rim wasn’t tracking especially well, with an opening predicted around $35 million which is not great considering
the film’s price tag reportedly around $180+ million ; and it looks like those rumors
weren’t that far off at all. The film did not expand far beyond Guillermo del Toro’s fanboy base.
But if there’s a film that practically defines what a foreign
market monster hit is, it’s Rim. The film is expected to rake in big dough in overseas
markets.
The film was No. 1 in Russia and Korea, and is
doing great business in the U.K. Mexico and
some 20 other countries where it opened this weekend, and will keep opening in other
countries though August. And when Rim opens in China on July 31st look out.
But the big news is the smallest film of the new releases
this weekend, Fruitvale Station, which
opened in 7 theaters to an incredible $53,000
per screen, for a total of $377,000 , far
and away the biggest per screen opening for any film, not only this week, but in
months. The film will continue to open in more cities as the weeks ago by and we’ll
be keeping tabs on it
