Box Office Bulletin: "Pirates" arrive with a "soft" $90 million opening!

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

Delivering the biggest opening weekend of 2011, "Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" opened to an estimated $90.1 million in total receipts, easily winning the box office weekend. While $90.1 million is never a number to discount or place in ill regard, reports declared this opening as "soft" or "underwhelming". Comparatively speaking with the previous "Pirates" films, this was the lowest grossing and lowest attended opening weekend for the film franchise, at least in North America.

Overseas counts told a much different story as "Pirates" amassed a staggering $256.3 million, rolling its worldwide cumulative total to $346.4 million. Deadline reports that with the production and marketing budgets added together, this film cost $420 million to bring to the screen, a figure which is already within sight after just 5 days of being on screen.

Delving further into the "soft" opening for a moment, 2003's "Pirates...The Curse Of The Black Pearl" started at $46.6 million in July 2003 but earned more than $300 million domestically. The film also earned Johnny Depp his first Oscar nomination and springboarded the sequel, 2006's "...Dead Man's Chest" to $423.3 million and a ranking as the 8th biggest grossing film of all time in North America. The third entry, 2007's "...At World's End" returned closer to the numbers earned by the first film in the series, but still cleared $309.4 million. Worldwide the films have grossed more than $2 billion dollars, not counting the sums calculated for "...On Stranger Tides".

All of that to say, this may be the first film in history to earn $90.1 million stateside and $256.3 million overseas and be viewed as a disappointment.

"Pirates..." opened unchallenged as Mel Gibson's "The Beaver" saw its wide expansion muted to just 168 locations, a gain of 105 new sites. However, one new film delivered a stunning opening with 6 locations hosting it.

NEW OPENINGS:

"Midnight In Paris", directed and written by Woody Allen, reversed Allen's recent troubles in delivering a worthwhile opening. Allen consistently generates a film a year and his films often are given small platform releases. His last sizeable opening, 2008's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", a film which earned Penelope Cruz a Supporting Actress Oscar, started at $3.8 million at nearly 700 screens, but for a platform opening, you have to go all the way back 2005's "Melinda and Melinda" which started at $74k on 1 screen to find anything comparable to this start. The film also earned Allen his best reviews in years and Oscar talk has started to float around the film's screenplay. This is Allen's third straight film to be released by Sony Pictures Classics and has already banked $5.9 million overseas.

Some lovely "Bridesmaids" keep people's attention after the cut...

Box Office Actuals: May 13-15, 2011

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

Retaining the top spot for a second weekend, "Thor" held a better second weekend than most comic book adaptations tend to do and banked another $34.7 million domestically, raising its total to $119.5 million in 10 days. Traditionally, the comic book adaptation film loses more than half of its opening audience in a second weekend, but "Thor" lost just 47.2%. An encouraging figure as Paramount builds towards "X-Men: First Class" and "Captain America..." in the coming months.

As 'Thor" held well, the big story of the weekend was the huge opening for the Kristen Wiig-led "Bridesmaids", which exceeded even the most optimistic projections to score an impressive $26.2 million opening frame. Critics loved the film and audiences grew through the weekend as word-of-mouth spread on this being not just a knockoff of "The Hangover" or other similar R-rated ensemble comedies. Countless other outlets have written about the film's success and whether this is a gamechanger for Hollywood, but Nikki Finke at Deadline is on record as saying that many higher ups in rival studios wanted this film to fail. "Bridesmaids", budgeted at $32.5 million, is a moneymaker by Wednesday and will have virtually no opposition heading into its second weekend. If "Bridesmaids" can pull a second strong weekend, this might be well on its way to a $90-$100 million final haul.

"Priest", Paul Bettany's second film with director Scott Stewart, following 2010's "Legion", was underestimated slightly in its first weekend. Earning just under $15 million, while reportedly budgeted at $60 million, "Priest" may have suffered from its PG-13 rating appearing to be at at odds with its harsh and frightening subject matter and imagery. "Priest" opened on more screens and with a smaller sum than "Legion", which started north of $17 million in January 2010. Screen Gems may make this profitable with grosses from around the world, but not recouping the budget domestically will be a big disappointment. "Priest" looks to land in the $40-$45 million range stateside.

In a somewhat surprising development, "Rio" became the soup du jour for families who were seemingly lost in the shuffle with the recent openings targeting teens and young adults. "Rio" slid a negligible 2.7%, despite losing more than 300 locations from last weekend. In a fifth week, this type of drop of is almost unheard of and the film has made $125.2 million in North America and is chugging along to the tune of $429 million worldwide. "Rio" will lose screens and attendance with "Pirates of the Caribbean" arrives, but the film has another 10 days or so without true competition until the eagerly anticipated "Kung Fu Panda 2" arrives on May 26.

"Soul Surfer" continues to draw return business even as it loses more and more sites. Down just 20.8% this weekend, "Soul Surfer" may have a small take by appearances, $1.8 million, but on an $18 production budget, the film has been an impressive performer with 6 weeks in the Top 10 and overall take just under $40 million. The film has been given a July DVD date, which will be officially announced in the coming days.

Will Ferrell sells drama, a "Cave" finds new heights, and lots and lots of indie films try and stake a claim after the cut:

Box Office Bulletin: "Bridesmaids" turn heads while "Thor" stays #1

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

Read Robert Hamer's Weekend Openings Column for the May 13-15 weekend...

"Thor" continued to rule the box office universe in its second weekend by avoiding the typical slide that action movies and comic book adaptations tend to suffer from. Hot on its heels and performing well above expectations is the female ensemble comedy, "Bridesmaids", which impressed many pundits with its success.

"Thor" slid less than 50% in weekend 2 and earned an estimated $34.5 million, moving it to $119.3 million stateside in 10 days and $318 million worldwide. Budgeted at $150 million, the film had strong attendance during the week and although "Thor" will likely take a big hit when the fourth "Pirates of the Caribbean" film drops on May 20, everyone is thrilled with the film's success in furthering the build to 2012's "The Avengers". Expectations are also heightened for July's "Captain America: The First Avenger" with "Thor"'s success.

Co-written by Saturday Night Live star Kristen Wiig, "Bridesmaids" was a test for Hollywood. Wrongly saddled with comparisons to "The Hangover", the all female-ensemble R-rated comedy drew in a much larger than projected audience. While it finished just north of our own Robert Hamer's predictions, "Bridesmaids" banked an estimated $24.4 million on a reported budget of $32.5 million. The movie will likely be profitable by the middle of the week and could holdover strong in its second weekend with no direct competition for its target audience. While audience reports showed attendance as nearly 2:1 female, the film received a 90% Rotten Tomatoes average and was the buzz movie of the weekend. I'll hold back editorializing to some extent, but let me simply say that I think everyone wins with the success of "Bridesmaids" this weekend.

NEW OPENINGS:

In January 2010, Paul Bettany made the leap from dramatic character actor to post-apocalyptic action star with "Legion". After "Legion"'s mediocre but profitable performance, Bettany is back as the star of "Priest", an adaptation of a Korean graphic novel also set in a post-apocalyptic landscape and reuniting Bettany with "Legion"'s director, Scott Stewart.

Shot for $60 million, a much larger budget than "Legion" received, "Priest" did not find the audience it hoped for, landing with a disappointing $14.5 million estimated start, less than "Legion"'s $17.5 million start. Ravaged by critics, "Priest" may have suffered from confusing trailers which never really provided viewers a sense of what they were getting. Also, the PG-13 rating seemed to not fit the horror/science-fiction subject matter, which may have steered folks down the hall to see "Thor" a second time. With this opening, "Priest" will probably struggle to land at $40 million domestically, the same haul which "Legion" enjoyed, but when all is assessed and considered, this is a significant disappointment for studio Screen Gems.

National Geographic Entertainment scores a big opening and Will Ferrell struggles to sell, as well as other notables, after the cut!