'Thunder' reigns again at box office
'House Bunny' hops to No. 2 spot
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Before “Tropic Thunder,” only “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” had managed to stay in the top spot for more than a week this summer. And only two previous studio summer titles, “Mamma Mia!” and “What Happens in Vegas,” had seen second-week drops of less than 40%.
The $90 million Ben Stiller sendup of Hollywood had a stellar Saturday, jumping 25% over its Friday level to gross $6.5 million. That propelled it past Sony’s female-skewing “The House Bunny,” which finished second at $15.1 million.
Universal’s “Death Race,” the remake of 1975 cult classic “Death Race 2000,” was initially considered a possible weekend champ but hit some speed bumps to take third at $12.3 million. The two top newcomers grabbed the expected auds, with “Death Race” skewing 63% male and “House Bunny” 68% female.
The weekend’s other wide openers fared worse. MGM/Dimension’s “The Longshots,” a family sports drama starring Ice Cube, finished eighth with $4.3 million. Fox continued its run of disappointments with “The Rocker,” a Rainn Wilson-starring bid at another “School of Rock”; it came in 12th with $2.8 million.
Fox wasn’t the only distrib with comedy agita. Focus launched Sundance darling “Hamlet 2” in 53 U.S. markets but came away with just $435,294 for a middling average of $4,226. A wide break of some 1,500 runs is set for Wednesday.
“Tropic Thunder,” a headline-grabber for months over content some have deemed offensive, an unbilled cameo by Tom Cruise and its risky economics, has now grossed $65.7 million.
“We definitely felt internally we were going to be No. 1, but Saturday was a pleasant surprise,” said DreamWorks/Paramount rep Chip Sullivan.
Warner Bros. claimed the Nos. 4 and 5 spots on the chart. “The Dark Knight” inched closer to the $500 million domestic mark, adding $10.3 million to reach a $489.2 million cume. The animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” grabbed $5.6 million for a $25 million total.
Overall, it was a soft weekend. The penultimate frame of a surprisingly healthy summer saw receipts off a few percentage points from the year-ago period. The summer tally fell a fraction off the pace of last year’s record $4.16 billion, though a diverse product mix and earlier-than-usual Labor Day makes equaling the record a possibility.
Four wide Labor Day debuts are on tap: “Babylon A.D.,” “Disaster Movie,” “College” and “Traitor.”
Two notables defined the specialty space. MGM/the Weinstein Co.’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” which technically counts as a wide release at 692 playdates, dropped just 20% as the Woody Allen pic saw grosses rise in many markets en route to a $3 million frame. The well-reviewed film is on track to deliver one of the strongest results yet for the Harvey side of the 3-year-old Weinstein Co.
Pic, which stars Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, has a good chance to equal the grosses for “Match Point,” which took in $23.1 million for DreamWorks in 2005 and ‘06 to become the fourth-biggest film of Allen’s prolific, five-decade career.
A few markets and runs will be added for the Labor Day frame, a natural move given that grosses in Middle America -- including Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Columbus -- actually rose from last week.
“Hamlet 2,” acquired for $10 million at Sundance by Focus, presents something of a B.O. case study, and its bow was closely watched. One of its central challenges is how to break topliner Steve Coogan, the decidedly British star of arthouse faves “24 Hour Party People” and “Tristram Shandy,” into the mainstream.
The expansion to 1,500 runs set for Wednesday is a high hurdle, though in these early domestic theatrical days it should be noted that Focus controls rights in Coogan’s home U.K. turf, and that bow comes in November.
“We knew taking the film on was going to mean introducing the public to something new,” said Focus distrib chief Jack Foley. “That meant getting the word of mouth on the ground. If we had gone wide right away, it could have been calamitous.”
Specialty biz
The specialty realm, a precarious place to do business of late, saw a mix of results.
IDP/Samuel Goldwyn got solid returns on the second week of “Elegy,” which took in $502,136 from 92 sites, good for a stout $5,458 average. The Ben Kingsley-Penelope Cruz starrer, based on a Philip Roth novel, will grow to 29 markets this weekend.
Roadside Attractions opened debt doc “I.O.U.S.A.” in 18 locations, grabbing $62,278.
Sony Classics’ “Frozen River” remains a strong arthouse performer, generating $165,723 in its fourth week, or $4,042 on each of its 41 screens.
“Bottle Shock,” a Sundance fave being rolled out by its makers in conjunction with Freestyle Releasing, took in $719,928 from 324 runs, averaging $2,222.
Summit’s 3-D toon “Fly Me to the Moon” saw its theater count rise 19% to 540 while its three-day gross of $1.4 million repped a drop of 24%.
