Updated: 'Sex and the City' at #1, 'Persia' #3 in Disappointing Friday Box-Office All Around

Updated: ‘Sex and the City’ at #1, ‘Persia’ #3 in Disappointing Friday Box-Office All Around

May 29, 2010

By Brad Brevet

UPDATED: Complete Friday estimates are now updated and it looks even better for Shrek Forever After pulling a potential upset.

Okay, so not only was my potential $70 million three-day box-office an apparently ridiculous estimate, but it looks like anyone calling anything more than $55 million for the three-day Memorial Day weekend box-office winner was off the mark. Early Friday box-office estimates are in and they aren’t looking pretty.

As expected by most everyone Sex and the City 2 is the current leader in the clubhouse with an estimated $13.1 million for Friday, but that is not a very impressive haul when compared to expectations. Perhaps the $14.2 million earned on Thursday and the additional $3 million earned at midnight screenings on Wednesday night bled this thing more than I thought.

Interesting enough, and also something theorized by Gophers Attack! in the comments yesterday, Shrek Forever After is Friday’s #2 with an estimated $11.3 million. Is it possible the green ogre could eek out a second weekend win? After all, the families come out heavy on the weekends and with it being a holiday it could be an even greater advantage to the animated feature.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is going to fall well below Laremy’s prediction of $51 million after it came in with the bronze prize on Friday and an estimated haul of only $10.2 million. Persia‘s three-day will now be happy to crack the $30 million mark from 3,646 theaters.

While many of you disagreed with my reviews for both Sex and the City 2 and Prince of Persia I think one thing we can agree on is that this has been a very disappointing summer movie season so far. I was looking through my reviews and there are only two films I’ve given an “A” or higher to so far this year: A Prophet (which I saw in 2009) and the IMAX 3D documentary Hubble 3D. Sure, I gave two films out of Cannes an “A” but I am only counting films that have been released to the masses so unless you can see it I’m not counting it.

One question I could ask, did any of you go see either Sex and the City 2 or Prince of Persia? Would you happily recommend either film to your friends and/or family?

Complete Friday estimates are detailed below.