I don’t think any of the numbers we’re seeing when it comes to Friday estimates are all that surprising. We expected The Avengers to remain strong. We expected Battleship to suffer a slow death and The Dictator never felt like very strong competition.
However, when it comes to The Dictator I didn’t expect a “C” CinemaScore and fourth place new arrival, Lionsgate’s What to Expect When You’re Expecting isn’t looking much better with a “B-“. As far as I can tell, unless you’re sporting a “B+” or higher from the people polled in these CinemaScore post-screening questionnaires you are DOA.
Oh, and I know you’re wondering… the CinemaScore winner amongst the weekend’s newcomers, that’s right, Battleship with a “B”, which isn’t too bad, but tells me we are looking at the pinnacle when it comes to this film’s chances. It’s the kind of movie people go home and when asked if it’s worth seeing the response is somewhere around, “Eh,” and, “It’s okay if you haven’t seen Avengers yet.”
With $15.3 million on Friday this will obviously be a third straight weekend for Avengers on top and will cruise to a $50+ million weekend and end on Sunday over $450 million domestically and the year’s highest grossing domestic release so far with little sign, at the moment, of slowing.
Battleship managed an estimated $9 million on Friday and is going to attempt to scratch and claw its way to $30 million. I don’t think it can do it. The Dictator, which opened on Wednesday and brought in $7 million heading into Friday, will pray for $14 million and What To Expect When You’re Expecting is crossing it’s fingers for $13 million.
And in its second weekend in theaters Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows is fading into the shadows with an estimated $3.8 million on Friday and an expected $11 million second weekend, down 62% from opening weekend. Ouch!
I have included the Friday box-office estimates directly below and will be back on Sunday with a complete weekend wrap-up.
- The Avengers – $15.3 million
- Battleship – $9 million
- The Dictator – $5.7 million
- What To Expect When You’re Expecting – $3.85 million
- Dark Shadows – $3.8 million
- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – $872,000
- The Hunger Games – $825,000
- Think Like a Man – $800,000
- The Lucky One – $580,000
- The Pirates! Band of Misfits – $450,000
Early numbers provided by Deadline and will be updated once official estimates are announced.
