Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:Audiences came out bigger than expected for the latest superhero to arrive on the big screen as "Captain America: The First Avenger" delivered a strong $65.1 million opening, giving it a huge victory over a rapidly declining "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2". Paramount reps were obviously ecstatic with the reception afforded to "Captain America" and the film opened almost even with May's "Thor", which started with $65.7 million.
With the arrival of "Captain America", everything has lined up nicely for May 4, 2012, when the eagerly anticipated "Avengers" film, featuring Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and other Marvel comic book icons finally sees its realization on the big screen. After some initial alarmingly negative reviews, "Captain America" saw its Tomatometer rise to 74% - on par with the reception critics levied upon "Iron Man 2" (74%) and "Thor" (77%).
Audiences were quite taken with the film and its throwback look and feel, grading it an A- via CinemaScore. The film has yet to make its mark overseas yet, grossing $2.8 million in Italy, the only overseas location receiving the film. Paramount and Marvel are rechristening the film internationally as "The First Avenger".
All in all, its yet another success for Marvel and Paramount, as Chris Evans lines up nicely alongside his counterparts, setting the stage for one of the most eagerly anticipated advance release dates of recent memory.
A "Harry Potter" breakdown (perhaps literally), Justin and Mila receive a warm welcome, and Indian cinema makes some headlines...more analysis, The Weekend Breakdown and The Top 40 after the cut!
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS
Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake can breathe a bit easier as the two young stars delivered a better than expected opening with the R-rated romantic comedy, "Friends With Benefits". Although Timberlake and Kunis are already A-list stars, they have never opened a movie with their names above-the-title before.
Some thought the film should open much better with Timberlake and Kunis seeing a meteoric rise in the movie world right now, but Screen Gems were reportedly very pleased with the film's start. Audiences graded the film a B+ and it plays very funny, witty, and whipsmart, at times reminding of director WIll Gluck's previous film, "Easy A".
Financially, the film fell behind January's Natalie Portman/Ashton Kutcher release, "No Strings Attached", which is premised off virtually the same plot of friends trying to engage in an emotion-free sexual relationship. Critics, however, were much more in the corner of the Timberlake/Kunis film. Budgeted at $35 million, this opening continues the successful run of R-rated comedies during the Summer of 2011 and should earn a nice mid-$50 million total when it completes its theatrical run.
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2
The drop was expected and some predicted that the final entry in the "Harry Potter" franchise would have a noteworthy decline, but this was much steeper than Warner Bros. expected. Hemorrhaging 72.0%, "Harry Potter" had the biggest dropoff ever for a "Harry Potter"film and a stepper drop than any other film that had previously established a weekend box office record.
Signs of this came when the film slipped behind the record-setting 5-day pace that "The Dark Knight" had set in 2008, but the steep loss of audience is a blip on the radar in the otherwise staggering success Warner Bros. has encountered with this film.
The film is all but guaranteed to become the largest domestic grossing film in the series ("...Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone" finished with a domestic take of $317.6 million), and possibly by the close of its 17th day this coming weekend. The film is also rapidly closing in on "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" as the largest grossing film of 2011 in North America and is still the second-fastest film stateside to earn $250 million. Internationally, the film has banked $840 million and will be closing in on the $1 billion mark for the first time ever in the franchise's history.
Warner Bros. execs are reportedly concerned about a possible strong second weekend for "Captain America" and complete uncertainty on the forthcoming "Cowboys And Aliens" will be received, when it comes to gauging expectations for a third weekend for the "Potter" film. When averaging all of the "Potter" films and their respective third weekends, an estimated drop of another 49-50% would seem likely. That would bring in a third weekend of approximately $23-$25 million. We shall see.
ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA / SINGHAM
A few weeks back we touched on the success Bollywood and Chennai movies can have from time to time in the North American box office, and how little gets reported about it. Well, two of these films have pulled some impressive totals - one which opened two weekends ago and one which started this past weekend.
Reliance Big Pictures opened "Singham" on 50 screens and pulled in a decent $161k start. This Vijay Award winner (for films in the Tamil language) features Tamil star Suriya as a peaceful police officer who may or may not need to resort to non-peaceful means to resolve a conflict with a mafia boss. Reliance Big Pictures has the claim to the largest grossing Indian film released domestically, as 2009's "3 Idiots" amassed a hefty $6.5 final gross.
Rival studio Eros has raised some attention with their film, "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara", which held its #15 ranking in its second weekend, playing impressively at its 100 locations. Most Bollywood/Chennai films plummet 55-65% in their second weekends, but "Zindagi..." slid a mere 30.2% and has grossed an impressive sum of $2 million in its 10-day run.
"Zindagi" has been renamed "Won't Get Life Back Again" in some North American theaters, and is a comedy/drama focusing on three friends who travel to Spain and learn about life, themselves, and the workings of the world. Reviews are largely positive and the film has been well-received by audiences worldwide. The film, if it can hold for a strong third weekend, may be on pace to become Eros' largest domestic release ever, besting 2007's "Om Shanti Om" (3.6 million).
SARAH'S KEY
The largest per-screen average of the weekend went to French film, "Sarah's Key", starring Kristin Scott Thomas as a present-day journalist investigating the infamous Vel' d'Hiv roundup in occupied France during World War II. Although the film started in just 5 locations, screenings were sold out, with $116k in total receipts tallied. An impressive cast, strong reviews and word-of-mouth, and the push of The Weinstein Company made this a first weekend success.
ANOTHER EARTH
An eagerly anticipated sci-fi/fantasy entry, "Another Earth", finally saw its theatrical release after a buzzworthy and award-winning run through Sundance and other smaller film festivals. On par with "Sarah's Key", "Another Earth" opened on 4 screens and drew just under $20k per screen for a $77k starting frame. Fox Searchlight will reportedly rollout "Another Earth" to more and more locations over the next couple of weeks.
SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN
One of the only films to show an increase in audience this weekend, Mandarin drama "Snow Flower And The Secret Fan", adapted from an acclaimed 2005 novel by Lisa See, gained 49.5% after expanding to 61 screens from its opening at 24 sites a week ago. The per screen average was not all that exciting when compared to other films making similar expansions, but overcoming a lackluster critical response, the film is connecting with fans of the novel and Fox Searchlight plans to continue to roll the film out more and more each week.
REMAINING TOP 12 FILMS
Alongside the nice start for "Friends With Benefits", other R-rated comedies performed well.
"Horrible Bosses" and "Bridesmaids" continued their impressive runs, as "Bosses" slid a mere 33.1% in its third weekend. The film now seems likely to move north of $100 million, delivering a bonafide smash for Warner Bros. and New Line's comedy, which secured a $35 million production budget.
"Bridesmaids" kept right on chugging along, raising its overall take to a whopping $163.8 million in its 11-week haul. "Bad Teacher" will also gross more than $100 million, but fell out of favor dipping nearly 50% in its 5th weekend.
On the family front, "Zookeeper" continued to be the soup du jour (sigh), losing just 29.4% for a better-than-expected hold of $8.7 million. Overall, the Adam Sandler-produced comedy has earned $59.2 million for Kevin James and now has an outside shot to earn back that $80 million production budget with domestic earnings.
The brilliant and outstanding "Winnie The Pooh" dipped only 34%, holding its 2,405 locations from the week before. Frankly, the film is simply not drawing the audiences more preoccupied with the careless "Zookeeper". "Smurfs" is expected to pop a strong weekend, putting both of these films in jeopardy of good numbers next weekend.
"Midnight In Paris" lost another 85 sites but dropped only 3.8% as people continue to seek out and go see the most beloved Woody Allen film in years. Total gross is $44.8 domestic and $78.5 million worldwide.
THE DISCOUNT HOUSE
There were significant additions to the Discount House circuit this weekend. "Super 8", "X-Men: First Class", and "Kung Fu Panda 2" are slated to make the jump within the next few weeks.
AND FINALLY...
Sarah Palin's "The Undefeated" saw its nice start end abruptly. After having a specially targeted and successful opening weekend, everything crashed and burned hard in weekend #2. Those reports of vacant theaters and walk outs may have not been proven by opening weekend numbers, but in adding more screens, the film plummeted 62.4% with a dismal per screen average and a total gross in 10 days of slightly more than $100k.
If the 2008 Presidential Election fails to count as a "defeat", then the reaction to this film probably does not either. In any event, whatever interest the film generated is gone, baby, gone...
THE WEEKEND BREAKDOWN
#1 Film - "Captain America: The First Avenger", earned $65.1 million in its opening weekend.
Last Year's #1 Film at this time: "Inception", earned $42.7 million in its second weekend.
Biggest Per Screen Average: "Sarah's Key", $23,142 at 5 locations ($116k for the weekend)
Worst Per Screen Average (50+ Sites): "Delhi Belly", $537 at 67 locations ($36k, $1.5 million cumulative)
Largest Increase (50+ Sites): "Snow Flower And The Secret Fan", +49.5%
Steepest Decline (50+ Sites): "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2", -72.0%
Films Earning More Than $1m for the weekend: 12
Films Which Surpassed $100m: N/A
Films Which Surpassed $200m: "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2" (mid-week)
Films Which Surpassed $300m: N/A
Films Which Surpassed Reported Budget This Weekend (Domestic): N/A
The Top 40 and other notables (Wkd Figures and % Chg, based on 3-day totals)!
| TW | LW | DAY | FILM | WKD | TOTAL | % CHG |
| 1 | N | 3 | Captain America: The First Avenger | $65.1m | $65.1m | New |
| 2 | 1 | 10 | Harry Potter/Deathly Hallows Part 2 | $47.4m | $273.5m | -72.0 |
| 3 | N | 3 | Friends With Benefits | $18.6m | $18.6m | New |
| 4 | 2 | 26 | Transformers: Dark Of The Moon | $12.1m | $325.8m | -43.5 |
| 5 | 3 | 17 | Horrible Bosses | $11.9m | $82.6m | -33.1 |
| 6 | 4 | 17 | Zookeeper | $8.7m | $59.2m | -29.4 |
| 7 | 5 | 31 | Cars 2 | $5.7m | $176.4m | -32.7 |
| 8 | 6 | 10 | Winnie The Pooh | $5.2m | $17.6m | -34.3 |
| 9 | 7 | 31 | Bad Teacher | $2.6m | $94.4m | -49.3 |
| 10 | 10 | 66 | Midnight In Paris | $1.8m | $44.8m | -3.8 |
| 11 | 11 | 73 | Bridesmaids | $1.3m | $163.8m | -23.0 |
| 12 | 8 | 24 | Larry Crowne | $1.0m | $34.3m | -61.7 |
| 13 | 12 | 38 | Mr. Popper's Penguins | $935k | $63.5m | -31.7 |
| 14 | 9 | 45 | Super 8 | $760k | $124.2m | -61.4 |
| 15 | 15 | 10 | Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara | $670k | $2.0m | -30.2 |
| 16 | 17 | 59 | The Tree Of Life | $556k | $11.0m | -11.4 |
| 17 | 14 | 24 | Monte Carlo | $476k | $21.8m | -63.9 |
| 18 | 21 | 52 | Beginners | $425k | $4.6m | -1.8 |
| 19 | 13 | 38 | Green Lantern | $382k | $113.9m | -71.9 |
| 20 | 16 | 52 | X-Men: First Class | $348k | $144.2m | -45.2 |
| 21 | 22 | 80 | Thor | $343k | $180.1m | -11.2 |
| 22 | 20 | 60 | Kung Fu Panda 2 | $317k | $160.8m | -31.1 |
| 23 | 19 | 66 | Pirates Of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | $311k | $238.0m | -36.8 |
| 24 | 24 | 101 | Rio | $304k | $142.6m | -5.9 |
| 25 | 18 | 60 | The Hangover Part II | $299k | $252.5m | -40.8 |
| 26 | 25 | 38 | Buck | $267k | $2.7m | -11.7 |
| 27 | 27 | 108 | Born To Be Wild IMAX | $246k | $9.7m | +28.0 |
| 28 | 23 | 31 | A Better Life | $215k | $1.4m | -36.3 |
| 29 | 30 | 10 | Snow Flower And The Secret Fan | $200k | $411k | +49.5 |
| 30 | 26 | 87 | Fast Five | $170k | $209.4m | -20.8 |
| 31 | N | 3 | Singham | $161k | $161k | New |
| 32 | 29 | 17 | Beats, Rhymes & Life... | $145k | $596k | +5.5 |
| 33 | 28 | 45 | Judy Moody/NOT Bummer Summer | $136k | $14.7m | -5.1 |
| 34 | 34 | 45 | The Trip | $130k | $1.3m | +37.4 |
| 35 | 32 | 493 | Hubble 3D | $122k | $27.0m | +10.5 |
| 36 | 35 | 10 | Tabloid | $121k | $264k | +32.7 |
| 37 | N | 3 | Sarah's Key | $116k | $116k | New |
| 38 | 31 | 38 | Page One/Year Inside New York Times | $96k | $763k | -25.1 |
| 39 | 38 | 24 | Terri | $88k | $372k | +13.5 |
| 40 | N | 3 | Another Earth | $78k | $78k | New |
BUBBLING UNDER INCREASES AND OPENINGS:
42. “Sholem Aleichem: Laughing In The Darkness”, $57k, $131k total, +172.4%
43. "Cave Of Forgotten Dreams", $54k, $5.0m total, +8.2%
44. "Project Nim", $50k, $171k total, +2.2%
46. “A Little Help”, $45k, NEW
47. “Incendies”, $40k, $1.9m total, +14.0%
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