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!

Box Office Actuals: May 6-8, 2011

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

Despite being one of the few films to have its weekend totals overestimated, "Thor" cruised to a strong opening of $65.7 million to win the box office derby by a slightly more than 2:1 margin of last week's chart topper, "Fast Five". While "Thor"'s opening pales when compared to the comparable "Iron Man" or "Iron Man 2" (which opened the same weekend in 2010), the Marvel Comics adaptation landed the second biggest opening of 2011 thus far.

In some circles, the more impressive story may center on the TriStar/Sony release, "Jumping The Broom", which was underestimated by nearly $1.5 million when initial counts were taken. Made for a mere $6.6 million, "...Broom" surged to a $15.2 million start and had a big Mother's Day attendance, padding its numbers. For Pastor T.D. Jakes, a co-producer on the film, this is already Jakes' highest grossing film, exceeding the $10+ million gross for 2009's "Not Easily Broken" and the $6+ million take for 2004's "Woman Thou Art Loosed!". "...Broom" also had the third highest per screen average for wide releases, netting almost $7,500 per site.

Also underestimated but equally overshadowed is the romantic comedy, "Something Borrowed", which also drew a better than anticipated Sunday attendance and finished the weekend grossing $13.9 million. If the film can hold a decent second weekend, the film should finish near $40 million for its overall gross, exceeding its reported $35 million budget. Critics lambasted the film and audiences were reportedly not too enamored with the film however and it will be interesting to see if female audiences jump to the edgier R-rated "Bridesmaids" and what the effect on "Something Borrowed"'s second weekend will be.

Two other holdovers fared well Mother's Day weekend and saw smaller than expected dropoffs. "Water For Elephants" became profitable this weekend, losing just 35% of its audience in the third weekend and raising its bar to $42.1 million. As audiences shift their attention to bigger and bolder summer fare, it will be interesting to see if "Water...'" can retain its appeal with audiences. "Elephants" looks likely to hit its projected $55 million final gross at this point.

Hanging in the lower reaches of the Top 10, "Soul Surfer" slid just 31.5 % and retained a #8 ranking, with $2.3 million earned and a cumulative $36.9 million gross. People are returning to this film again and again and it has developed a loyal and passionate base of support. "Soul Surfer" has now doubled its production budget, making it a surprising and breakout success.

Within the rest of the Top 10, every other film except "Rio" lost more than 50% of its previous weekend's attendance, largely due to theater counts being slashed with the arrivals of "Thor" and "Fast Five". Then again, it is the transition from spring to summer and large amounts of screens were slashed from films such as "Source Code", "Insidious", "Hanna", and "Scream 4".

"The Beaver" debuts, a "Cave" continues to amaze, contrary to reports - there were no dragons after all, and a possible new record in infamy may have been set. More analysis after the cut:

Today's Posters: A whole bunch of character posters for Thor

The rest after the jump...

Today's Trailers: Thor and Something Borrowed

First up is the latest look at Marvel's next cash cow 'Thor':

After the jump is the rom-com 'Something Borrowed':