Weekend Box-Office: ‘Rock of Ages’ and ‘That’s My Boy’ Crash and Burn

I’m happy to see Prometheus was able to do much better than I thought it would over the weekend after a rather dismal $5.8 million on Friday. I thought that would translate to only $17 million so, in this case, $20.2 million isn’t too bad. It isn’t too good either as it signals a 60% second weekend drop, but as someone that has enjoyed discussing the film I’m happy to see it did better than it looked like it would do.

Yikes, into the newcomer territory we go where both Rock of Ages and That’s My Boy thoroughly crash landed and splattered all over the tarmac. Laremy’s $28.4 million prediction was way, way off and only two RopeofSilicon readers even predicted this film would come in under $20 million. So kudos to both Arthur Carlson and Dennis, though Dennis gets the overall win for his $18 million prediction.

The film everyone was comparing this to was 2008’s Mamma Mia!, which brought in $27.7 million in its opening weekend on its way to $144.1 million overall. Rock of Ages is now going to have to hope for big international returns with its $75 million budget, but if Mamma Mia! is again used to be the comparison, that film took in over $465 million internationally. Any chance Rock of Ages does even half of that? That “B” CinemaScore doesn’t exactly bode well.

Snow White and the Huntsman is now up to $122 million, but that $170 million production budget still looms large and international totals have yet to offer much help.

Ugh, if you thought Rock of Ages was a box-office disaster look at the results for That’s My Boy. $13 million? Seriously? Again, Laremy was WAY over on this one and again, Dennis delivers an excellent prediction of $15 million, though Drew was hot on his tail with a $15.5 million prediction. Apparently those two looked at those trailers and knew people wouldn’t be turning out in droves for this one. Other predictions on the board pegged That’s My Boy for upwards of $40 million citing a “solid fan base”. Seems most of those people stayed home. Is Jack and Jill to blame? The R-rating? The trailers?

As it turns out, this result is worse than the $16 million opening for Sandler’s Little Nicky back in 2000. Considering the rate of inflation that is really saying something. Are we witnessing the end of Sandler’s box-office dominance?

The story here is the $225 million budget and the $364.6 million this thing has made overseas so far bringing its worldwide total to $517.2 million placing it in the top 100 all-time. Of course, inflation, 3-D surcharges and what not diminishes the effect of that total, but Sony has got to be happy with those numbers no matter what given all the negativity swirling around this pic before it was released. And look, holding strong with a Fresh RottenTomatoes rating. Whowouldathunkit?

$586 million domestic and climbing. The big question now seems to be whether The Dark Knight Rises will be able to beat it? Thoughts?

Overall, The Avengers now sits at $1.41 billion worldwide.

Blah, blah, how did it make so much? Blerg, blerg, amazing results!

I was telling a friend just yesterday about how much he’d enjoy Moonrise Kingdom and it looks like more and more people are learning just how good it is as it continues its limited theater box-office dominance. This week Wes Anderson’s latest expanded into 178 total theaters and brought in an estimated $2.1 million for a $12,254 per theater average as it now tops out domestically at $6.7 million.

I’m beginning to wonder what kind of results this film will enjoy once it goes even wider. The Royal Tenenbaums is Anderson’s highest grossing film to date, bringing in $52 million back in 2001. I don’t think it can do that kind of business, but how about that $24 million number from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou?

As far as Laremy’s prediction is concerned, he didn’t have updated theater counts when he posted his picks which is the reason he is so high. Love his optimism though!

Man, not pretty…